Wait For Me
by DarkElements10
Summary: Big Time Rush is excited to go on vacation to Australia. They imagined surf, sun, and sand while hanging out in paradise. They expected award shows, appearances, concerts, and getting a peak into a life of what the future of being in the music industry had for them. What they didn't expect was finally being able to understand the life that's followed their friends like a shadow.
1. Chapter 1: Warm Welcome

**Wait For Me**

 **By: Riley**

 **Summary** \- Big Time Rush is excited to be able to go on vacation to Australia. They imagined surf, sun, and sand while getting to hang out in paradise. They expected award shows, appearances, concerts, and getting a peak into a life of what the future of being in the music industry had for them; perks, perks, and more perks. What they didn't expect was finally being able to understand the life that's been following their friends like a shadow, the things they tried to keep a secret, and the things that are bursting at the seams.

* * *

 **Chapter One: Warm Welcome**

"I wonder what first class is like."

Kendall's eyes widened to an almost psychotic level as he lowered his hockey magazine from his face. He turned to face his little sister so quickly that the man sitting in the aisle next to them looked over in concern. Probably thinking that Kendall would actually make good on his mental threat to murder his little sister.

"Katie! Would you _stop_ saying that every hour! It's starting to drive me crazy!" He cried.

Katie shot him a frustrated glance in response. "It's a fifteen hour flight, there's nothing on the in-flight entertainment that I haven't already watched, the plug in my seat stopped working, and my iSlab is dead! What do you expect me to do?"

"Go to sleep! And _stop_ trying to sneak your way into first class." Now Kendall was barely paying attention to the magazine—of which he had read about three times already—and tossed it to the tray in front of him. He ran his hands over his face.

"I can't sleep," Katie said. "These seats are uncomfortable, I have no leg room—"

"—Join the club," Kendall muttered. He shifted, moving his legs to stretch out into the aisle. Maybe that'd keep the people that continued to line up at the bathroom from leaning into his space. There were only so many times people could and lean on his head before it got annoying. And it got annoying within the first two hours of the flight, having left LA the night before.

"—and Mom is still asleep so I can't move."

Kendall and Katie looked over at their mother. She in the last seat in their three-chaired aisle. With a neck pillow resting on her shoulders, an eye-mask pulled down over her eyes, ear-plug s, and a blanket pulled up her shoulders, she was the picture of comfort.

Kacy Knight* made sure that she had all of her supplies to keep her asleep and warned them that If she was woken up early she would kill them. Kendall had seen the look on her face and noticed she hadn't woken up whenever food was brought by. She was serious.

And he didn't have a death wish so he wasn't going to come close to waking her up.

"Well, we're…" Kendall reached out and pressed the buttons on the screen in front of him. He navigated to the map and grinned, seeing the time in the corner. The image of the airplane that had tracked them across the sky was nearing land mass. "Only thirty minutes away!"

"Thank God!" Katie said. She leaned back in her seat, smiling in content.

The smile faded when their mother leaned over and rested her head on Katie's shoulder. She smacked her lips, growing comfortable once more.

Kendall laughed along with his sister. Then he felt his stomach lurch as the plane shifted to the side.

They were landing soon.

He couldn't wait.

* * *

"Logan?" Carlos reached out his hand and shoved his passenger card into Logan's face. Logan jumped, his concentration was broken. "Am I supposed to put my Palm Woods address or my Minnesota address?"

Logan sighed. He dropped his hands to the tray he was using to write on with a light slap. "You use the Palm Woods address; we've been living there for about three years now."

"But it's not the same address on my passport," Carlos said. He jabbed his pointer finger into the passport to prove it. "My passport has home as my address. I mean, we don't know when the band is going to end and—"

"—don't joke about that," James said. He sat in the aisle, rapidly clicking the top of his pen. Logan gritted his teeth at the sound. "You'll curse us and I'll have to go solo quicker than my plan." He smiled. "Not that that's a _bad_ thing." Logan turned and glared at him and he held up his hands as he looked over his own passenger card. "I'm just saying."

"Guys, will you _please_ let me focus? I want to make sure I do this right," Logan said.

He paused as there was a slight bump of turbulence before it leveled out once more. He leaned forward and looked over the questions. _Name; check. Address; check. Passport number; check. Flight number, intended address…_ Then he looked over the rest of his card, everything seemed to be filled out okay. He turned it over to fill out the back, neatly signed his name on both sides.

With a satisfied smile Logan re-capped his pen and placed it neatly on the tray. He folded his hands and sighed in content before making the mistake of looking over at James's and Carlos's passenger cards. His heart nearly exploded from the shock.

"Carlos, you're supposed to use a pen!" He cried.

A snort escaped Carlos's lips as he continued to write on the passenger card with a pencil. Then he stopped and erased. "What would that do if I mess up?"

A vein throbbed in Logan's forehead. Much like it did when he had to sit through hours of bad plays Camille dragged him to. He hated to see them but he liked spending time with his girlfriend. Being able to sit through a few hours of mind-numbing pain was always worth it. But when he first arrived the pain would come back red hot.

"It's to make sure you don't change your answers so you don't end up detained at customs!" Logan spat.

"Ohhh." Carlos tapped his pencil against his chin. "Kind of like Bitters's rules for the Palm Woods. No Bloodshed."

"No Partying," James said. A bitter tone to his voice.

"No Loud Music."

"No Ball Playing."

"No Pool Parties."

"No Playing Hockey in the Lobby."

"No Stealing From the Snack Machine."

"No Karate in the Lobby."

"No Loitering in the Lobby after 9.00 P.M."

James snorted. "And the new one, no social gathering. Does he not understand that we're teenagers and if we don't socially gather we'd die?"

Logan made a face. "That was your fault!" He still couldn't get the sound of Bitters's and Mama Knight's yelling out of his head once they both found out about the party that night.

Kendall got it especially bad for him and Jo having locked Bitters in the party box because Mama Knight 'thought she taught him better than that'. Then, to Logan's surprise, _he_ got it for having had gone along with the party in the first place despite Mama Knight being clear about having no parties.

Logan smiled a little. It _had_ been good to rebel for once in his life and not only that, but it had cemented his feelings for Camille at the time and things had worked out great there. Not perfectly, there were a few bumps in the road with his feelings for someone else, but things were great now.

Then Carlos and James had both been screamed at by Bitters and Mrs. Knight. They were relegated to having to work with the janitorial team to clean the entire Palm Woods. They still claimed it was worth it and continued to do so when it was brought up again.

Logan snapped to attention as James turned back to his passenger card and said, "Goods obtained overseas…nope!"

"Yep!" Logan insisted.

A smug chuckle escaped James's lips. He said in his 'that's your jealousy talking voice', "It's not even close to $400 dollars."

A pained squeal nearly escaped Logan's throat. How had he ended up being the only sane one out of all of them? "That's _Australian_ dollars! In the US that adds up to be about $290 dollars!"

"My hair products are worth _much_ more than _that!"_

"Give me those!" Logan snatched up his friends' passenger cards and moved to fix them. He leaned over the cards and frantically started to scribble over them. "Do you know how long customs takes? Security? I don't want to end up on some sort of a list because you can't fill out some stupid card."

Carlos and James looked at Logan then at each other with the same expressions of concern on their faces. Carlos placed his hand on Logan's shoulder. "I think out of everyone, you need this trip the most. Even more than Gustavo and everyone knows nothing can help Gustavo."

Logan chuckled to himself. Gustavo hadn't particularly wanted to go on the trip. He was talked into it by Kelly who not only wanted to go but deserved a break as well. Plus, they were able to travel in first class where they'd be pampered and Gustavo could verbally abuse the stewardesses rather than his 'dogs' throughout the entire fifteen hour flight.

Even when arriving at LAX Gustavo showed how irritated he was. He hated the crowds, hated that the airport lounge's WI-FI wasn't up to its standards of speed, hated how much construction was going on, hated how dirty everything looked, and hated how they couldn't take a jet. And on and on and on.

"You think him being up in first class is why the plane keeps dipping?" James joked.

Logan laughed along with the others. "He's complained about everything so far, it wouldn't surprise me if he grabbed the controls and tried to fly the plane himself."

* * *

Going through customs didn't take long. Exchanging their money into Australian money didn't take long. Getting everyone gathered outside the airport to be picked up didn't take long. What took a long time was getting Mrs. Knight awake so that they could get their things together and off the plane, getting Gustavo to stop complaining, and making sure that _all_ of their bags and presents and accounted for—especially after having to stop to make sure all of James's hair care bags were found.

"Did you really need to bring that much stuff?" Jo asked. She brushed her long hair behind her ear. Her eyebrows rose as she looked over James's tower of bags while everyone else had only one large one and a carry-on. "We're just going to be here through New Year's."

"You're complaining about my bags when Kendall insisted on bringing that girly, pink bag with us?' James used his thumb to point to the backpack that rested on Kendall's back.

Kendall looked offended. He crossed his arms. "A _fan_ gave it to me."

"And the last time you brought it, you singlehandedly got us stuck in that stupid plot of the guy who wanted to blow up the moon and take over the world," Katie said. "I keep telling you it's cursed."

"It's not cursed!" Kendall insisted.

Stephanie turned away from videotaping the crowds of people leaving the airport and turned back to her friends. She lowered her camera from her eye and gave Kendall a knowing look. "Or maybe you keep it around because you _want_ it to be made fun of."

Kendall looked away but didn't say anything to deny her accusation.

"I just can't believe we're finally here in Australia!" Camille cried. She clasped her hands together. Her curls bounced around her face as she moved up onto her toes. "I've wanted to go here forever and now we're finally here! And for the holidays too."

"Not just for the holidays!" Gustavo declared, sticking his finger in the air.

"Here we go," James muttered.

The group watched as Gustavo started to pace. "This trip isn't just to be able to celebrate the holidays and hang out with your friends."

"Really?" Kendall smirked. "That's news to me." His smirk switched to a smile as James, Carlos, and Logan snickered beside him. Gustavo paused, lifted his middle finger so that it was in the shape of a 'V' and pointed them at his eyes before pointing at Kendall.

Kelly rolled his eyes despite dutifully writing down notes as Gustavo continued. "This isn't all fun and games. We're here to make sure that Big Time Rush manages to break through the international market. Breaking America is much harder than it is in other countries so it's good to get an idea of how things work out here. Now, the ARIAs are a big night where you will walk the red carpet, do on carpet interviews, and see the crowds that we're going to win over! It's the second step in my plan for world domination!"

"And, what are you going to be doing while we're working?" Logan asked.

Gustavo stared at him for a long moment. "Um, relax. Because it's my vacation!"

Katie shook her head as everyone else rolled her eyes. She should've known what Gustavo was up to. When he wasn't working, everyone else was. It wasn't like she didn't have her own ideas to push Big Time Rush forward. But it was supposed to be a vacation for all of them.

Katie looked at her watch, taking note of the time—after working out the time change.

Her best friend, Lizzie Zevon, was going to be in Australia in another ten hours after going with her brother, Dak, to visit family back in Ohio. Once the brother and sister arrived everyone would be together again. But that wasn't the part that held her attention. That gave her nervous butterflies she didn't know existed within her.

In the next half hour she and her friends would be traveling across the ANZAC Bridge—as was emphatically told to them being the only way out of the city—to the suburb or Rose Bay where their friends, the Jacksons, lived.

In the next half hour they would be spending the next two to three months celebrating the holidays and their ARIA nominations.

In the next half hour they would be able to hang out and be able to finally know what it was like to grow up in, their words, 'one of the best places in the world' while simultaneously get to understand them better.

Because if it was the 'best place in the world' then why was it that they only talked about certain aspects of living there? They all knew the reason why but hoped being there would make it easier for them to talk about. Having to live through a parent's death that young had to be hard.

To live in a place that constantly reminded them about it had to have been harder.

Like the others, Katie turned at the sound of tires squealing and a horn honking. Ronan McGuire pulled up to the curb in a large van. Katie's eyebrows rose in delighted surprise as she hurried over to it. She was a little disappointed to see there was no one else in the van with him but that was oaky, they were probably getting the house set up.

"You couldn't have gotten a better car?" Gustavo demanded as the others picked up their bags and walked over.

Ronan lifted an eyebrow as he climbed out of the driver's seat, sliding a pair of sunglasses down over his eyes. Katie realized then that she was already starting to sweat despite it only being the early hours of the morning. It probably didn't help that she was wearing a sweater to combat the coldness of the airline.

"Do you know any extravagant cars that can hold this many people?" Ronan shot back.

"Ignore him," Mrs. Knight said. "He's just cranky that he can't get first class transportation from the airport while the rest of us sat in coach."

"Not them," Carlos complained, pointing to Jo, Camille, and Stephanie, who grinned. "They were in Business class!"

"Hey, we paid for our own tickets," Jo defended herself. "You could've been up in Business class, too."

"No, we couldn't," James said.

" _I_ could have," Katie boasted. Then she pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. "But mom wouldn't let me."

"That money is better spent on a college education," Mrs. Knight said. She reached out and smoothed down Katie's hair. "Besides, not being able to keep an eye on you in first class was more worrying than having you bored back in coach."

Chuckling, Ronan went over to the back of the van and opened the doors. That was typical of Gustavo, he had known and worked with the man for years and knew Gustavo wanted nothing more than to have the best of everything. He even complained if he had a Mercedes rather than a Mustang. "Why did I offer for you to stay at the house again?"

"Probably for the same reason that he politely agreed before deciding to stay in a hotel," Kelly said. She pulled down her own sunglasses and motioned towards the van. "Now can we get going? I'm going on a vacation too and I can't wait to start!"

"Oi!" Ronan turned around to look at an airport worker who directed the flow of traffic. He motioned towards the van. "Get going, you're holding up the bloody line!"

"You got it," Ronan called back. He slapped the side of the van. "Okay, everybody in!"

Katie hung back, waiting for her turn to put her bags into the back of the van. Kendall took her bag and carefully placed it into the back before he did the same with his. As he closed the doors he glanced over at her and Katie realized he probably had the same look in his eye that she did.

Of curiosity and worry; that even the shortest amount of time out of LA might've changed things.

Katie looked at her watch again.

Twenty-five minutes.

* * *

 **A/N:** Finally got the first chapter up and I already feel like its better than the last time I attempted this idea. Some of the things that happened in this chapter—as well as in some other parts of the story—are things that I went through in my trip to Australia back in July.

*Again, we know that Mrs. Knight's name is Jennifer. Before that was revealed we had it where she went by 'Kacy' in terms of fulfilling the 'K' theme of their names we have it where her _middle name_ is Kacy and some people call her that while others call her Jennifer.

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and I'll have it updated again soon.

 **-Riles**


	2. Chapter 2: Setting Goals

**Chapter Two: Setting Goals**

* * *

Walking into the Jacksons' house James expected thudding footsteps. A lot of talking at once. Maybe even excited screams. What they didn't expect was an argument about ham of all things.

James glanced at Ronan to see his reaction. Ronan grimaced for a second before smiling in amusement. James stepped aside so that Gustavo had enough space to squeeze into the foyer and took the time to look around. His eyebrows rose when he spotted pictures and paintings lining the walls, leading to a massive staircase. On the far side of the foyer James spotted an open spaced living room with modern looking furniture, similar to the kind he had when he went solo. It only lasted for a second once BTR's first concert had been cancelled.

A smile came to James's lips. That seemed like so long ago even if it was only a few years. Now he couldn't imagine what his life would've been like if the band really _had_ ended. Where James went solo, Kendall went on to play hockey, Logan went to school, and Carlos…splashed around a bit. They certainly wouldn't travel the world as much as they were now. But to stay in a place as extravagant? As far as he had seen of Gustavo's mansion this was better.

Then James tuned back into the argument that wafted from the kitchen, somewhere from the back of the house.

"Hey, where do you want me to put the ham?"

"Wait, who got ham?"

"I got ham."

"Why?"

"I just want to know where to put it."

"Because I like ham."

" _No one_ likes ham."

" _I_ like ham!"

"No one else is going to eat ham."

"It's a sham."

"Ha! Sham ham!"

"Stop staying ham."

"Take a shot every time someone says ham."

"Ham!"

"STOP SAYING HAM!"

Ronan laughed and the argument immediately stopped. Then Ronan took a large step back out of the way as the excited voices, loud footsteps, and shouting filled the foyer once the Jacksons swarmed like ants to greet their friends. James grinned and hugged each of them enthusiastically once it was his turn.

Yeah, that was more like it.

As he moved through the five, he couldn't help but get a good look at them. Of the short amount of time they'd been to their home they certainly did seem happier. Not as exhausted, a little more tanned, and just seeming to be in a good head space. For the past three years of knowing Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney, they worked hard on their band the DarkElements and nothing else. That wasn't true. They helped out Big Time Rush too, in any capacity they could. Being mentors in a way.

Compared to when they first met, where the family was as skittish as they were combative, due to being abused by their then foster father, they were more relaxed. Actually, James hoped that this time around they'd be able to let loose some more. They kept saying things got crazy when they were home, or there were some things they got into while home. He wanted to take part in that, live the whole experience.

Ronan watched as the group of friends all started to talk at one and suddenly had the horrifying expression of 'oh God, what have I done?'.

Mrs. Knight smiled at him. She gently laid her hand on his arm. "You look like you just saw a ghost."

"I may as well have," Ronan said. He smiled. "The ghost of my former, calm, sane self just walked out."

"So, where's everyone going to sleep?!" Gustavo barked, his voice immediately filling all the empty space of the foyer. James winced and reached up, wiggling a finger in his ear. He was so not going to miss Gustavo as he stayed in a hotel the duration of their visit. "I need to make sure my dogs get an adequate amount before we start day one of their world domination!"

"Chances are that means he's going to be sleeping in," Kendall murmured from James's side.

"If you feel any earthquakes then we'll know it actually _is_ from his snoring," James murmured back. The two snickered and fist-bumped. They dropped the expressions of amusement from their face as Gustavo whipped his head around to glare at them, doing the 'V' motion again.

"You think he'll actually make good on his threat to eat us?" Logan whispered.

Carlos laughed loudly, his cackle stretching around the foyer. Patrick Jackson made a face before stage whispering, "It probably would be a good time to mention that you can't really whisper in here. Trust me; we've made that mistake many times before."

"Especially because my office is just over there," Ronan said, pointing down the hallway to a set of closed doors. He placed his hand on Patrick's shoulder. "When you're done with the tour and room assignments please have the bands meet in my office, alright? I'll finish putting up the groceries."

"Oh, we'll help you," Kelly offered.

Gustavo grimaced. "We will?"

"If it wasn't for Ronan inviting you guys out here, Big Time Rush wouldn't have the opportunities they have over here." Kelly shrugged.

"And it's polite," Mrs. Knight said. She grasped his arm and James felt bad for him, seeing her fingertips press into his arm. She had a tight grip on him and James knew she wasn't going to let him out of her sight anytime soon.

"Twenty minutes," Ronan called over his shoulder as he went to the kitchen.

"You got it," Sydney said. Once the adults were out of the room Sydney turned to his friends. He eagerly asked, "Does anyone want to see my room?"

"Yeah, how are we supposed to fit everyone in here?" Camille asked.

Rhuben waved her hand. "Oh, there's plenty of space. No worries. We'll show you the rooms first and then let you know who is staying in what room." With that, she led the way up the large staircase and to the second floor of the house.

James's mouth dropped open as he got to the second floor and started to look through the rooms. Call him materialistic, but he knew what he wanted when he wanted it. A place as extravagant was what he wanted and it was part of his plan. Get famous, get five houses, and marry Nicole Scherzinger. It wasn't going to change anytime soon. The longer they were out in Australia and the more audiences they put themselves in front of the easier it'd be. They already had fans trying to get onto their tour buses and into the crib since they came back from their 'All Over the World' tour. Who knew what would happen this time.

While each room was a dream, the rooms towards the back of the house had a great view over the backyard pool, fire pit, and lake. "Actually, it's the harbor," Noah explained as Jo mentioned it. "We're about a half hour away from the city. But it's a ten minute walk to the beach."

"That close?" Jo asked. She laughed and elbowed James in the side. "Well, I guess I know where James is going to be for most of the day. Sunbathing."

"And you're very welcome to join me, Jo," James said. He put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. "All you need to do is ask."

"Let's just make sure you put on enough sunscreen this time," Katie said. She smirked at James as he glared at her. It was one thing to be chased around Malibu with a sunscreen gun; he didn't need it to go international either."

"Or at least make sure the sun doesn't go to his head," Stephanie added.

"So, room assignments." Riley leaned against the wall behind her. She crossed her arms and nodded to each room. "Syd is going to room with Ronan so his room is free. Then there's the guest room up here and the guest room and Julius's rooms in the basement."

"Julius isn't staying here?" Katie asked.

James tried not to smile once he noticed Kendall's sudden tense expression as well as Patrick and Noah both rolling their eyes. James looked over at Logan and the two exchanged knowing smirks. Katie was all of the guys's little sister. And James was certainly very close to her himself. But Kendall went nuts practically every time she mentioned dating or being interested in someone. It seemed that as soon as she turned into a teenager she became nearly as boy obsessed as Lizzie did. But she wasn't as forthcoming, so she resulted in what sounded like innocent questions and comments.

"No, he and Brittany have an apartment in the city," Rhuben explained. "Usually they stay there, but he'll be around."

"Mrs. Knight is going to take Syd's room. James and Carlos are going to take the guest room up here. Then Kendall and Logan will take the guest room in the basement and Dak will be in Julius's room." Riley looked over at Camille, her eyebrows coming together. "Is WayneWayne coming?"

"No, he said that his family has a surprise trip to Canada for the holidays," Camille explained. "But I'll call him later."

"Gotcha. So Dak gets the room to himself. Well, for the girls you have a few options, yeah? Rhu and I have King sized beds in our rooms so you can either share that or the guest rooms upstairs." She motioned between herself and her twin sister. "I mean, we don't mind which you choose, but I wouldn't blame you for wanting the private bath—"

"We'll take it!" Jo and Camille blurted at the same time.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kendall joked. "If anyone deserves their own bathroom it's James. Did you see how many bags he brought for his hair? And that's just his _hair_."

"You don't need to be jealous just because your hair isn't as glamorous as mine," James declared. He brought up a hand and flipped his hair, as if to prove his point. He grinned as everyone laughed and relief moved through his body.

"Okay. Well, go and get your things set in. In about five minutes we have to be in Ronan's office," Patrick said. He let out a noise of surprise as Sydney immediately sprang forward and grabbed onto Katie's hand, stating "Come see my room!" as he dragged her off.

James grabbed Carlos's shoulder and shook it as they went to their guest room. He immediately went over to the window and looked out at the water. In the distance he could see standup paddle boarders gently glide over the water, boats bobbed up and down, and fluffy clouds slowly shifted across the skyline.

Yep, this was paradise and it was everything he wanted.

"Dude! Dude, this is going to be so awesome!" Carlos declared. He dropped his bag to the ground and started to jump up and down on the couch.

"I know, man." James turned away from the window. He leapt up onto his own bed and started to bounce up and down. "Just think of what this going to do for us! Big Time Rush is going to crush it here!"

"Who cares about Big Time Rush?" Carlos shot back. "Do you know everything we can do here? Anything we want!"

The two continued to jump up and down, shouting back and forth about the things they were going to do while there.

They were going to have a lot of fun.

* * *

"Dogs, you're here to work!"

Carlos pouted as Gustavo handed him a sheet of paper filled with a schedule. His eyes widened with each thing. Photo shoots, appearances, events, interviews. Over and over and over again. His eyes started to cross as he looked over the page. This wasn't fun, this was torture. They were supposed to be soaking up the sun and sand.

Logan's hand shot into the air. "Gustavo, with how crammed this schedule is, that's not going to leave much room for us to sleep," he pointed out.

"So what?" Gustavo barked.

"So, with the jet lag we're going to face, this jam packed schedule isn't going to be very healthy for us," Logan insisted.

Carlos smiled. He nodded along with Kendall and James. Logan got it and he was putting his big time brain to work. There was no way Gustavo could take note of the crazy schedule they had created and not think it was a little crazy that they were going to be pushed so hard.

"You'll get used to it."

Behind his desk, Ronan brought his hands up to run over his face. He waited for Gustavo to finish his rant. That was smart, Carlos noted. _Then again, Ronan and Gustavo have known each other for years, so he probably knows how to handle him._

"Gustavo, relax," Ronan said. "You jumped all over them as soon as they got into the room." He motioned towards Logan. "He has a point in terms of jet lag. It's going to take some time for you all to get used to the time change. Especially since in LA you'd be going to sleep right now."

Carlos stifled a yawn. He lowered in his seat as Gustavo glared at him. He couldn't help it! As soon as they started talking about sleep, Carlos realized how tired he really was. There wasn't much room to get comfortable on the flight and having to sleep near Logan wasn't great. He was as anal retentive about being clean and respectful than he was on the tour bus and it nearly drove him crazy. How could anyone get sleep when you were being consistently tapped on the shoulder and asked to 'clean up his snack bags'.

"As it is, I think that tomorrow should be a day off for the boys," Ronan continued. "Just so they can get acclimated. And then, maybe, in the afternoon they can join my kids on their rounds of interviews. Just so they can get to know the different kinds of media they'll be working with."

"Already?" Kendall asked. "Do people know us enough out here to get interviews?"

"If you're in the industry you're getting some attention somewhere," Sydney said. "Your 'All Over the World' tour shows that you have international appeal. And more places are starting to see it. So it makes sense from a business perspective that you're trying to take advantage of it."

"If you take too long to do things, people will forget about you," Ronan explained. "That's why singers and bands don't take longer than a year off. The minute they take longer than their initial break, the quicker their star shine fades."

"And we don't want any fading stars!" Gustavo added.

Riley rolled her eyes. "Mate, relax. It's not the end of the world if they take a day off. The interviews they'll be seeing are for their exact demographic. So even some behind the scenes pictures and videos will help, yeah?"

"What are we doing tomorrow?" Rhuben said.

"An early morning workout and then everything else is in the afternoon," Ronan said. He handed her a sheet of paper and the five crowded around to look it over. "Plus, I want to go over some of the ideas that you have for the music videos you want to shoot while you're out here," he added to Gustavo.

Carlos perked up at the mention. Music videos? That was the best part of being in a band! Being able to play their music over and over again while singing and dancing to it until it was put together in a masterpiece that people would be looking at time and time again.

"We're doing music videos while we're here?" Logan asked.

"Quite a few, actually," Ronan agreed. He leaned back in his seat, resting his hands on his chest. "For _Emotionless_ and _If It Means a Lot To You_ specifically. And maybe a few others after that. Considering those songs were co-written and sung by members of Big Time Rush, it'd be a waste to miss out on that opportunity. Not to mention other ideas that these guys have." Gustavo looked skeptical. "Look, they released Black and White and because of it, they have two ARIA nominations. With the music videos they already have out, there needs to be something else that can bring in extra votes and this can be it."

"But they're not singles from the album?" Noah pointed out, eyebrows lowering.

"No. They're not going to be released as singles from the album. We already have those chosen. These are promotional singles, ones that can be sold on iTunes and played on Spotfiy. Not to mention they can go on your website for extra publicity. Chances are with the bands converging on this it's going to get twice a many hits as the usually get."

Carlos looked at Gustavo once more. He could practically see the wheels spinning in his head to figure out how all of that was going to work out. But he wasn't Kelly Wainright and Gustavo had her as a assistant for a reason. He looked around, noticing she wasn't in the office. "Where's Kelly?!" He demanded.

"You told her to go to the hotel to make sure your room was ready," James reminded him. He leaned over in his seat, as far away from Gustavo as he could. Sitting in close proximity to be yelled at was never fun. That's why Carlos sat in the chair furthest away from him.

Carlos took the chance to look around the office. It wasn't as big as the one he had in Blazing Phoenix in LA. This was definitely more like a home office; much like his mother's. With his mom being an IT Analyst there were pieces of technology and wires everywhere with her desk generally littered with pictures of him and his father.

Here, Ronan had a few photos on his desk; one he thought was of Ronan's parents and his brothers, then one of the Jacksons, a few of what looked like mountains, and a hugging couple that Carlos didn't recognize. Otherwise his desk and walls were empty. A stack of papers sat on the filing cabinet behind him, and a printer that was beeping, waiting for things to print. Every few seconds Ronan would glance at his phone and press a few buttons. Probably silencing numerous phone calls that were coming in.

Gustavo whipped out his cell phone and brought it to his mouth. "Note to self, have Kelly follow me everywhere."

"And if you ever wind up dead, mate, we'll know why," Rhuben commented. She used both of her hands to push her hair back from his face. "So what's going on directly after school? Besides the interviews, I mean."

At that Carlos burst out laughing. School? Who said anything about school? It was winter. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's were what everyone was supposed to be thinking about. Even Miss. Collins hadn't given them any homework before they went off on their trip. No one was thinking about homework at the moment. But then he realized he, Logan, James, and Kendall were the only ones who were laughing.

"Who needs school?" Carlos asked. "It's winter."

"Actually, its summer," Sydney said. "And we're still in school."

"We have exams in a couple of weeks," Patrick added.

"Wow," James said. Though Carlos wasn't sure if it was a pitying 'wow' or an amazed 'wow'. He decided it was pitying. Who wanted to still go to school that close to the holidays? Then Carlos looked over at Logan, whose eyes had widened at the mention of school. _Figures, Logan always gets a hard-on when school is mentioned, _Carlos thought. Then he snickered to himself. Even Camille couldn't beat his love for learning.

"I'd love to see how an Australian school works," Logan said.

"You can come with us!" Patrick said, his eyes immediately lighting up. "We can get a bunch of guest passes!"

"I think you could," Ronan said slowly. His green eyes shifted over to his black-haired, blue-eyed adopted children. "But like you were saying before, the issue with jet lag may come back to bite you."

"If we're going to get immersed in what it's like to be a really big band, then we'll have to make some sacrifices," Kendall said. His tone of voice betrayed him; he was trying not to get too over-excited about it.

"Well, if you're going to go to school with them you may as well just shadow them for the whole day," Ronan continued. The corners of his lips twitched.

Gustavo immediately leapt upon it like a shark to blood. "Are you saying they can't do it?"

"I didn't say that."

"We'd be glad to have you lot along. I mean, if you think you can handle it," Riley said. She shrugged innocently.

But Carlos could see the familiar challenging flash in her eyes. She knew she hit the right buttons and was going to enjoy herself immensely as things went on. One look at the rest of the Jacksons's faces and he knew they were thinking the same thing.

They were either going to barely survive or make it through.

But this was Big Time Rush and Carlos knew once they put their minds to something, they could do anything.

And if anyone was going to break Australia, it was going to be them.

* * *

Mrs. Knight looked at her cell phone as she unpacked her bags. The message icon continued to blink at her. And she continued to ignore it, already knowing who it was from. Kevin had certainly kept his word when he said he wouldn't stop until he reached her at least once. Before they had gotten on the plane he had left her a message saying he hoped she had a good flight, and now this was one that he had apparently left while they were in the air.

It was exhausting.

The last thing she wanted to do was get tangled up in emotions she wasn't sure she had. Didn't want to waste time that she _certainly_ didn't have for him anymore. But their conversation before they left had certainly thrown her for a loop. They had to have it, she knew it was coming eventually but not so soon. Not it was going to be on the back of her mind as long as they were away.

Mrs. Knight picked up her phone and deleted the message without listening to it. She knew what it said, knew she would get another e-mail or text when she didn't call him back. But it was her vacation, too. Her ex-husband, or soon to be ex-husband, would have to wait.

* * *

 **A/N:** Because I know someone's going to mention it; you'll see specifics on how the Jacksons and Big Time Rush first saw each other again in the upcoming chapters. So don't be disappointed that you didn't see it in this one. Not to mention some other characters coming in.

Thank you to all four of you who reviewed. I promise that the pacing will pick up and things will be more interesting after these first two chapters. My starts are always a bit slow, I'm working on it. This is set during season 3 at the moment, as it's a part of the timeline we haven't mentioned much, but I'm also thinking of changing it to be set in season 4.

I'll update again soon. Hope you liked it!

 **-Riles**


	3. Chapter 3: Foreshadow

**Chapter Three: Foreshadow**

* * *

Jet lag was a real thing and it was a killer.

So much so that Logan was practically falling asleep into his bowl of oatmeal, no matter how hard he was trying to keep his head up. Every few seconds his eyelids would heavily lower and Logan was sure he was making grotesque faces with how hard he shifted his eyebrows to keep his eyes open. When that became too much to bear, Logan would rest his chin in his hand to prop himself up, but gravity would eventually find its way to be too strong and pull him towards his breakfast only for him to save himself a few seconds before impact.

James, who sat on his other side nudged Logan on the arm and said, "Oatmeal is good for your complexion." He then leaned closer to Logan's face and squinted his eyes. "And you could really use it."

Logan was too tired to do anything more than glare back at him despite wanting to make a gesture with a certain finger. It was even more infuriating to know that James was so bright and chipper, along with Kendall and Carlos. James—and Carlos who had recently started to join him—were sure to go to the gym every morning in the early hours, and Kendall was so engrained into a hockey lifestyle that Logan was sure his inner-clock was completely re-wired to have him at his best at the crack of dawn.

Logan, on the other hand, didn't particularly like it when his schedules abruptly changed. He could handle getting up early due to his hockey background, but after having been used to things in LA over the past couple of years the shift in time was a big eye-opener. Or in this case, eye closer.

Order and routine were things that Logan strived for in his life. As well as learning and getting as much knowledge as he could over the course of his life. But having been rudely awakened by Sydney jumping onto him to wake him up that morning, he wanted to shoot someone. Then he remembered he—unwittingly—signed up for it and decided that he wanted to kill himself and take the rest of his friends down with him for allowing their competitive spirit to get in the way of everything.

 _Not like it's the first time it's ever bitten us in the ass,_ Logan reminded himself.

He wanted to go to Phoebe Nachee's lecture and when told 'no' ended up dressing up like a girl and received the biggest beat down of his life. They wanted to work with Jordan Sparks on a song and when told 'no' they ended up stuck down a well. They wanted to be able to go to a Hollywood party and when told 'no' they threw one at the apartment and eventually got caught. They wanted to have their first concert, was shut down, and eventually found themselves bound and gagged by Hawke and his crazy minions.

Sure, everything working out in the end, but all of that happened within the first year of being in LA and things continued to go up and down from there. And, yeah, things always ended up working out for them in the end. But his friends really needed to stop dragging him into stuff or else he _really_ needed to get new friends. Or at least _quieter_ friends.

As soon as they arrived at the house, it was like nothing had changed between them. Not like he thought it _would_ as they had only been gone for a month. But to think they'd be incredibly excited to have them all over to their house was enough to make him feel at home. Even he and Riley had put their differences aside long enough to politely greet each other with a hug. And, of course, Logan couldn't help but notice how Patrick and Katie greeted each other—kind of awkwardly, even doing a half-hearted side hug obviously not knowing what to do, while obviously happy to see each other.

Then when Dak and Lizzie arrived hours later Rhuben eagerly went to the door to greet her boyfriend, while Lizzie marched her way up to Rhuben's room to drop off her bags, prompting Katie to ask if she could stay in Riley's room, before she rushed back downstairs to enthusiastically greet Noah with a tight hug.

Staying up to talk with everyone and to catch up and talk about the things they were going to be doing was some of the most fun Logan had in a long time. Then he and Camille talked for a long time, until he finally allowed himself to go to sleep. He forgot how much he loved talking to her. They did spend a lot of time together when she was helping them on whatever crazy plan they needed to pull off or when they were sharing their mutual enjoyment of spending a night in making out. Logan felt himself start to blush at the thought. Still, it certainly got his mind off the other things he was trying extremely hard not to think about—and to stave off the constant state of stress he seemed to be in.

"I wouldn't say that again, dude." Kendall laughed as he got a good look at Logan's face. "It looks like Logie really could kill you."

Sitting up straight, Logan smiled smugly. "And I have the medical knowledge to do it and make it look an accident," he added.

James shrugged and leaned forward to tuck into his cereal. It wasn't so surprising, the boys lobbied threats to each other's lives all the time and hadn't had decided to do it yet. _Or else hadn't had the opportunity._ Logan smiled at the thought.

The boys looked up as Ronan came down into the kitchen and immediately headed over to a whiteboard that sat resting on the counter on the far side of the kitchen. "Good morning," he greeted cheerfully.

Logan suddenly felt like stabbing him too. Was he the only one that was suffering from the effects of international travel? Then again, it was probably true. He was the only one bugged by James and Carlos the entire time as they couldn't get to sleep. Until James finally got his 'beauty rest' but Carlos continued to shift around, sighing every few minutes, unable to get comfortable.

"You guys ready to go to school?"

That at least was something Logan was definitely looking forward to. He hadn't been lying when he said he wanted to know how Australian schools work. Anything that had to do with learning and academics and he was already there. Besides, it'd look good on his resume and his transcripts for when he applied to medical school.

"I think Logan's going to pee his pants he's so excited!" Carlos said. He laughed; Logan shot out his foot to kick him n the shin but missed and caught the supporting beam of the chair, cracking his toes against it instead. Carlos's cackle echoed around the spacious kitchen and Ronan quickly shushes him.

"You don't want to wake everyone up everyone else," he said. "Especially considering how long you all were up talking." He smiled a little, green eyes shining with amusement. "It's not like you didn't just see each other a month ago…and don't talk every single day."

"A lot can happen in a month, Ronan," Kendall pointed out. "At least that's what Gustavo yells at us every day." He sucked in a deep breath and sat up straight, moving up his shoulders to mimic Gustavo's stature. Then he lowered his voice and growled, "Dogs, you're only as good as your last song! You're only as good as your last album! All of this can be gone in a matter of days!"

Logan tried his hardest to keep from laughing, but couldn't help it. It was a spot on impersonation of Gustavo, along with his mannerisms. Not to mention what Gustavo had been spouting at them the weeks leading up to their trip. If the pressure from Gustavo was bad, Griffin was worse. He popped into the record studio so many times and out of nowhere that the boys all started to become jumpy and paranoid. Logan even realized he started to peer around corners before going anywhere. Camille called him crazy for it and he was pretty sure her father hated him more for that than he had before.

Ronan laughed along with the boys then shrugged. He set the whiteboard aside, crossing his arms. "In his completely aggressive way, he's right. Even the tiniest things can make you lose your momentum. If you stumble on the smallest dance step, with today's technology being able to play things back, that can derail the entire thing." He thought for a moment. "Do I think that'll happen to you? No. But then again, I can't predict the future. What I _can_ predict, however, is that you guys would be able to bounce back from anything that may or may not happen." He eyed the boys. "But what I'm hearing is that you're worried about how you'll be received here?"

"Pretty much," Logan agreed. He leaned forward, resting his hands in his lap. "I mean, trying to come to a different country and sort of starting from scratch? It's pretty scary."

"I think you handled yourselves just fine when you were in Europe for your All Over the World Tour."

"That's different thought. It's not as…" Carlos paused. He held his hands up in the air and started to move them around before adding lamely, "Big."

"It's just as big as America and if you can do that as well as you have, then you can do it here, too." He looked up as his kids all came into the kitchen, carrying backpacks and dressed in their school uniforms. Carlos pointed and started to laugh loudly, grabbing the other's attention. Kendall and James both started to laugh along with him while Logan smile.

"You have to wear uniforms?" Carlos asked. He still giggled to himself as he took in the white button downs, blue ties, and shorts—for the guys—and red, blue, and white plaid skirts—for the girls, that they had to wear. "To school?"

"Is the tie part of it or is it just your way of trying to stay stylish?" Kendall added.

"At our age, ties are never stylish," James said. Then he lifted his finger and startled to rattle off, "Not unless you're going on the red carpet, you're going to some sort of a professional function, you're going to court, you have to dress up to show that your sports team is going to playing a game that day, and you're trying to defend your band form greedy mongrels ala Nsync 2000."

Patrick's eyes narrowed as he looked over James, adjusting his backpack straps. "Mate, I don't think I ever want to know how in depth you are about the music industry."

"Considering his plans usually end up with him marrying Nicole Scherzinger, I don't think you want to either," Kendall said. He finally stopped longing enough to tilt his chin upwards and ask, "Do you really have to wear that to school?"

"Yep," Rhuben explained. "A button down, and the pants or a skirt are mandatory. But you can switch out with shorts, a jacket, or a sweater vest."

"And you do that willingly?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

Riley crossed her arms. "Is incredibly long hair and mascara something you're willing to defend, mate? Cause chances are you're going to lose."

James clenched his jaw. "That wasn't mascara! I just have really long eyelashes!"

"If that's what makes you feel better," Noah commented. It was a comment under his breath, so quiet compared to his already tranquil demeanor that to Logan, who was sitting the closest to him, it was like he didn't say anything at all. But Patrick snickered and elbowed his twin in the side, making him smile.

"How'd you even know that?" Carlos asked, finally subduing from his laughter.

"Social media, mate," Sydney commented. He pulled out the chair next to Kendall and sat down. "It's true when people say be careful what you post online." Dimples appeared in his cheeks as he smiled. Sydney brought his hands up onto the table and laced his fingers together, as if he was about to start a very important business meeting. "So, I didn't know you used to be a cheerleader."

The kitchen exploded with laughter as Carlos let out a yelp and covered his reddening face. Finally, he grabbed his helmet and jammed it over his head, being sure to keep it low over his forehead. Logan smiled and shook his head. Honestly, he never found it being so weird that Carlos was a cheerleader for a short time back in high school. He certainly had the energy for it and that had been the driving point for others to say he should do it. (That and he was rarely embarrassed as Logan unfortunately found out having been by Carlos's side for most of those embarrassing moments).

"How was the surf this morning?" Ronan asked, changing the subject.

"Flat," Riley said, her tone of voice matching the word. "Which sucks because then we actually _had_ to do sand sprints." She glared over at her brother who looked just as upset as she did.

"You're acting like you're the only one who's upset about it," Patrick said. To prove his point, he reached up his hand and ran it through his spiked hair, allowing sand to fall to the floor of the kitchen. He looked up to find Ronan glaring at him and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Just clean it up later." Finally, Ronan picked up the whiteboard and turned it around. "You have good timing; I wanted to go over your schedule with you, today."

"Sure, mate, go ahead," Noah said. He worked a tie around his neck, quickly fastening the knot around his neck.

Logan's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw everything that was written around for their schedule for that day alone. He noticed their workout in the morning, of which they had already done, then school from 9 to 3, then there was a lot of things scribbled together; interviews, an TV show appearance, vocal rehearsals, dance rehearsal, and other things where the writing seemed to get smaller and sloppier as more items were added to the board. Then he looked at the rest of the calendar and noticed it was almost as full. Logan shifted his eyes over to his best friends and saw the same expressions on Carlos's face, excitement on James's, and determination on Kendall's.

That gave him some relief, some peace of mind; knowing that they all were feeling the same things he was. Three different parts of him; the anxious, the hopeful, and the determined to make their band as great as it could possibly be. And even though they were going to have time to rest and relax for a vacation, they were also there to work.

Fire ignited in Logan's stomach.

He couldn't wait to get started.

Ronan cleared his throat before starting to rattle off the schedule for that day, while simultaneously handing out bags of lunch for his kids. "Okay, today is Friday so that means you're going to be in school from 9-3, maybe getting out early for the classes that you've already finished through your homeschooling. Right after school, you need to get changed and at least start some of your makeup before we go down to Sunrise Network for The Morning Show where—"

"—we'll be doing an interview and a performance," Rhuben said.

Ronan nodded. "In the dressing room you'll be doing quick interviews with some magazines, I know for sure one of them is _Girlfriend_ magazine, others are probably going to be _KRASH, Dolly,_ and _Teen Ink._ After that we'll go to the studio to work on vocals and choreography before running through rehearsal for the ARIAs and quite possibly a fitting for that as well. Patrick and Noah your lacrosse game is tomorrow so don't forget to give me your uniforms to wash, Rhu, same thing with you for your soccer game, Riles, I'll make sure that all of the beach gear is by the door in the morning for your school's surf comp, and Syd, you have a half day at school, so you have a dentist appointment and Julius is going to drive you."

"Yes!" Sydney cheered, pumping his fist.

"Just have him meet us at the studios, he—ah! Speak of the devil!"

Julius Jackson-McGuire slid into the kitchen behind his siblings, ruffling each of their hair—causing Patrick to shriek and quickly fix his spikes, before he greeted the Big Time Rush boys, dropping into a chair at the head of the table.

"Hey, guys, how ya going?" He asked them. He tilted his head towards his siblings. "I heard they roped you into going to school with them today." His smile widened as the boys voiced their agreement. "Didn't anyone tell you this was supposed to be a vacation? Why would you want to go school?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Logan broke in.

"Here we go," Carlos said. He rolled his eyes and rested his chin in his hands to wait.

Logan ignored him and continued. "To see how the school system differs not just from Minnesota to California is already an experience, but to see how it's done in a different country isn't something you want to miss. Especially with the class subjects differing as well. I highly doubt when you'd say you have a history class that you're learning American history."

"I don't know, mate, it's been so long that I've taken a history class I reckon things could've changed."

"Speaking of, shouldn't you be in class?" Riley asked, lifting an eyebrow. "I know you can be late sometimes, but I don't think you'd ever forget where it is."

"Class was cancelled today and besides, I wanted to talk to Ronan about something." Julius then turned his gaze to a laser point at Rhuben, who raised her eyebrows curiously. "And I was hoping to get into my room for some stuff but I forgot that Lover Boy was going to be in there."

She frowned. "Really? You still insist on calling him Lover Boy?"

"Yep. And if you think that's bad, you should hear my name for Kendall." Julius smiled sweetly as both of his sisters glared at him.

"Dizzy," Patrick stated, raising his hand to make the 'crazy' sign next to his head. Noah nodded in agreement.

"Ditsy," Riley and Sydney chorused. At Rhuben's glare to her baby brother Sydney shrugged. "What? Compared to me, everyone's a ditz."

"Yeah, and a lot more modest," Patrick added. He looked at his watch. "C'mon, we have to leave now if we're going to get them guest passes before class."

"Can we take The Shortcut?" Sydney asked as he grabbed his backpack, sliding down from his chair.

"No. You know we only take it when we're actually late, Little Man," Riley reminded him, making him pout.

Logan's interest immediately perked up. The others must've as well for James was quick to ask "What's The Shortuct?" Judging by the eagerness in his voice to understand, Logan was sure he was going to use the vacation to his advantage in all areas it could be utilized.

"It's a back road that runs around most of the city where the police don't frequent. You can drive as fast as you want there and sometimes there's street racing, too. Most of our friends only use it when they're running late for something or for kicks," Patrick explained. He led the way out of the kitchen and the group nearly bumped into Camille who was coming down the stairs, yawning quietly.

"Hey, I'll meet you guys out there," Logan said, stopping by his girlfriend. She smiled and gave him a quick hug.

"No worries. You need to get your 'goodbye kiss' and everything in right?" Noah asked. He smirked as Kendall blinked twice and asked, "Wait, what?" Riley turned to muffle her laughter but failed.

"Oh yeah, we made fun of you guys for that all the time," Sydney pointed out. Logan laughed. It was evident from the way his eyes shone that he was enjoying being able to tease Kendall like this. Not that Logan, James, and Carlos didn't tease him much about it ever. The first time Kendall and Jo shared their goodbye kiss once it became a 'thing' they didn't let up on Kendall for being so soft and sensitive.

Kendall ignored them the best he could, but it eventually got to him where he had chased them down, threatening to beat them with a hockey stick. Of course that didn't _actually_ get the boys to stop, they just didn't do it as often—or in front of Kendall's face—when he was around. Though deep down they knew it was a sweet gesture between their friends when they were still going out.

"I mean the fact that your thing was a goodbye kiss wasn't bad," Noah remarked.

"It was the fact that you had to _say_ it every time you _did it_ that was bad," Rhuben said.

"Yeah, like, 'I'm going to go to the store and I won't be back for a few hours'," Patrick said, adopting a voice that was eerily similar to Kendall's. Then he took a step to the side and lifted his voice into a higher tone and after a second spoke, sounding eerily like Jo, "Goodbye kiss?"

With that the Jacksons all stuck out their tongues and made exaggerated gurgling sounds before laughing. Riley then noticed Kendall staring at her indignantly and immediately cut off her laughter. "Then again, it wasn't _that_ funny." She reached out and grabbed onto his hand. "I thought your haircut from freshman year was _much_ funnier, Spider-Head." Kendall rolled his eyes though he smiled, clearly used to the dig. "C'mon." She laced her fingers through his and started the two out the door.

"So, I thought you didn't compete in surfing anymore," Logan heard Kendall say as they walked further away.

"I don't," she replied. "It's a long story."

Logan smiled as they went. It was always weird for him to see how Kendall had gone form dating Jo to dating Riley so easily—not that there weren't any stumbles along the way—especially as Camille was Jo's best friend, and Riley was close to Jo as well, but it seemed like Kendall was really happy now. He certainly noticed that Kendall made _her_ happy after the massive fight and misunderstanding they went through just to—finally—get together.

Logan sighed as he turned to Camille. He couldn't help the smile that stretched on his face as he looked down at his girlfriend. Even with only a few hours of sleep—as he tossed and turned he could hear the girls staying up and talking in the living room—she still looked beautiful to him. And it was adorable how she rubbed at her eyes, yawning quietly.

"I feel like I just got lost in a vortex," he commented to Camille.

She laughed to herself, slightly startled by his comment. "What do you mean?"

"You know that overwhelming feeling you get when you're going to try something new and you have _all_ of this information flung on you at once?"

"Yeah, that was usually my experience with school," Camille said. She chuckled, scratching her bare shoulder as the neck of her shirt slid down. "And when I was really starting to get into auditioning." She looked up at him curiously. "Are you worried about performing and stuff out here?" Logan shrugged. "Logie, no one's going to hate you!"

"You don't know that," Logan reminded her. "You haven't seen what people have been saying online."

Camille rolled her eyes. "Oh, you mean those small social media accounts that do nothing but waste all of their time and energy saying mean things? Right, because that's who you want to listen to." She reached up and gently grasped Logan's face. "You have fans that were excited to know you guys were coming out here. They're beginning you to know when you're going to tour and where to get tickets for the show that you guys are going to do. If that's not having fans, then I don't know what a fanbase actually is." Then Camille tilted her head to the side. "Though, knowing you, you're more excited about _everything else_ than that."

"I'm not _that_ much of a nerd, 'Mille," Logan defended himself.

"I didn't call you a nerd."

"I know, but I could tell you were thinking it."

Camille laughed and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Go on. I know no one else is going to want to listen to it. What are you looking forward to?"

Grateful for the chance to nerd out a little, Logan took a deep breath before starting to ramble. "There's a lot to be experienced out here. As a tourist. As a person. There's the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and then there's Ayers Rock. But then there's other cities to look into like Canberra and Melbourne and Brisbane and the Gold Coast…" he stopped long enough to take a quick breath. "And then there's the architecture. Did you know most of their architecture is now taking on a modern feel? You'll see more designs with spirals and a lot of floor to ceiling windows than you had before. Of course that's in the city, those out n the suburbs and closer to the bush have to be more careful considering the bush fires. And—"Logan broke off, noticing Camille looking at him funny. "What?"

"Nothing," Camille replied. "I just love listening to you talk." She reached out and placed her hands on Logan's cheeks, giving him a kiss. Her smiled widened, love radiating in her eyes as she looked into his, gently rubbing his cheek with his thumb. "I'll see you later at the studio. Ronan said they'd get a car to get us there." She smiled and yawned again. "And maybe when I'm not so tired we can spend some time together. Because I want this to be the best vacation ever."

"Okay." Logan smiled and gave her another peck. "I'll see you later."

Logan gave her another kiss and hug before walking out the front door to meet up with the rest of his friends. But he couldn't keep his smile up for long because a new wave of anxiety washed over him.

Not because of all of the hard work he, Kendall, James, and Carlos were going to go through. Not because they were trying to break a new country.

But because he wasn't supposed to be in Australia with Camille. He wasn't supposed to be anywhere with Camille.

Her father had forbid them from seeing each other and it was only a matter of time until he found out.

* * *

 **A/N:** I'm sorry for the wait on the chapter. I had most of it chapter done, realized parts of the story needed to change to be better, then had to start it all over again. That being said, you may think not much happened in this chapter but I titled it 'Foreshadow' for a reason. ;)

Thank you to all four of you who reviewed. I promise that the pacing will pick up and things will be more interesting after these first two chapters. My starts are always a bit slow, I'm working on it.

I'll update again soon. Hope you liked it!

 **-Riles**


	4. Chapter 4: Closer

**Chapter Four: Closer**

* * *

"Wow, this reminds of me when we did our morning performance for Good Day LA," James remarked. He spun around the Jacksons' dressing room, taking pictures of everything he could focus his phone camera on.

"Mmm, except ours wasn't as nice," Logan remarked.

"And we're not being chased out by a crazy producer," Carlos said.

"And it's not so early in the morning we have to worry about mom killing us for waking her up," Kendall agreed. He flopped down onto the black leather couch that sat against the far wall, opposite the floor to ceiling windows that gave a perfect view over the city. "Where _is_ mom anyway?"

"Shows how much you pay attention Big Brother," Katie said. "She's getting a tour." Noticing that she sounded distracted, Kendall looked over to find her standing by five bags with Sunrise Studios stamped on the side, peering inside, and taking things out. When Kendall asked what she was doing, she explained, "For how long you've been working you should be getting Swag Bags as good as these! Look!"

The boys gathered around the bags, eyes wide as they looked at the goodies inside; the latest music technology, phone cases, mugs, shirts, boxes of candy, and other items that were more than what they had gotten through their own appearances.

"We need to work on our rider," James commented. He gestured wildly towards the bags. "See? These are the things we should be getting. But Gustavo won't let us think about any of it. We've been working for, what? Two, three years now and we still just get cheese and crackers."

"I _like_ cheese and crackers," Carlos protested.

"So, do I, but think of what it'd be like if we had _actual_ cheese and not the stuff from the nearest store."

Logan rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I think you care about the fame more than you do about the music."

"I can do both. They go hand in hand." James sniffed and looked away. "Besides, how can I marry Nicole if I'm not famous?"

Kendall rolled his eyes. Of course, things always turned back to that for James. But this time he could see the appeal for it. The amount of respect people got as their fame continued was certainly something that he could get used to. Especially if that meant that Gustavo could ease back the reins on them a little bit. After _Elevate_ had worked well in terms of their own songwriting and they had turned enough people away from just thinking of them as a boyband, they were sure to have more promotion and writing opportunities. Going to Australia was great for that, considering what Gustavo had planned for them, and they hadn't been to a big award show yet. James was hoping for the Tween Choice Awards, according to him 'if you've made it there, you know you're big in the public eye' but he was glad for the ARIAs as well.

When Kendall pointed out what James said about the Tween Choice Awards James shot back saying, "This is like the grammys, dude, keep up!"

Kendall couldn't help but laugh at that. He may have traded his hockey skates for dancing shoes but there was still a lot for him to learn. He looked over as the door to the dressing room opened and the Jacksons trooped in.

"Sorry we ditched you as soon as we got here, we had to check out the stage and everything," Patrick apologized. He walked over to Katie and slapped her hand away from the bag she was digging in. "Looks like we came back just in time. If you want something, just ask."

"Please, there isn't anything in there that I haven't already had my eye on," Katie said. She brought her hands back, holding them behind her back. She then started to rock on her heels. "Though if mom would let me play online poker again, I wouldn't have to wait so long."

"How much would you give me for this music player?" Patrick held it out.

"My love of money is too much to put a price on it," Katie replied.

A smirk came to Patrick's face. "I sort of thought you loved me more than that, but good to know." He tossed it back into the bag and hefted it towards James, missing the blush that came to Katie's cheeks. "Here, mate, you can have mine if you want."

James grabbed the bag out the air. His eyes widened as he held it to his chest. Kendall made a face when James took a deep breath through his nose, clutching the bag so tightly it crinkled. "Now I know what true power feels like," he whispered.

Logan's eyes widened. He started to say something to Kendall, who held up his hand, shaking his head. He had stopped asking why James did the things he did a long time ago. Instead, he turned his attention to Rhuben and plopped down onto the couch next to her. "When do you want to start up your guitar lessons again?"

Rhuben gave him a small smile, leaning back into the corner of the couch. "When you want to giggle more than practice," she replied, making Kendall smile. When he first offered to teach her how to play, after Ronan's suggestion that it might be a good idea depending on the song they were performing, she had said it was a lost cause, explaining, "Riles, Pat, Julius, _and_ Ronan have all tried to teach me. If we don't start very petty arguments, then we get all giggly and weird."

Still, Kendall took on the challenge in return for Rhuben showing him how to get better with his photography. It was something that he had always been interested in, especially once his father left and he wanted to be sure there were _good_ memories still floating around. Digital picture taking was okay, but he preferred developing the images more but never had much time to work on it around his hockey practices, games, school, and taking care of his little sister. Once their band started he had even less time and knowing professionals were taking their 'candid' photos rather than them didn't sit so well with him.

He slowly started to understand why the Jacksons preferred to do some things themselves rather than having others to do it.

"I'm free whenever works around your schedule," Kendall said to her.

Rhuben made a face. "That may be the hard part, but I'll set aside some time for you. Just not today." He noticed her trying not to smile to wide but knew she was just excited to be able to spend some time with Dak. Not that he could blame her; they really did seem to be working well together despite his own personal biases with hers and Logan relationship no matter how open-minded he tried to be about it.

There had been more times than anyone could count where Kendall was kept awake with Logan fretting over his relationship woes. Not just because he was only just starting his foray into dating with Camille, but because he wasn't sure what the 'correct protocol' was when breaking up. Yeah. Kendall rolled his eyes hard on that one, but did his best to give good advice about it.

"I get it. Besides, something tells me I'm going to be a little busy myself," Kendall said.

"You have something planned for you and Riles?"

"No, I have something planned for Pat if he's not careful."

Sydney laughed, pointing at Patrick as he pointedly backed away from Katie, slinking by the glare James was sending his way as well. Noah smiled over the top of his cell phone when his twin forced his way into his armchair, shifting around so that Noah was sitting half on top of him so that he was protected.

"Hey," Riley said in warning. She leaned into the mirror on their vanity, putting on the finishing touches to her makeup. "As much as I like the idea of having more food to go around, I'd hate to lose my brother over something so small. Especially when we still need to perform at the ARIAs."

"Can I help it that I'm a big brother?" Kendall got up from his seat and dropped into the chair next to her. She turned from the mirror to face him, blowing her bangs from her face. He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, making her smile.

"No. Can you help being a complete psycho?" Her eyes narrowed for a moment. "You look like you want to talk, Hockey-Head."

He smiled. "How can you tell?"

"How could I not? You have that look on your face," she explained. She reached out her hand and Kendall grabbed it, the two curling their fingers together before lifting their thumbs to start a thumb war. "It's a little different from your 'I'm about to give a speech' look and your 'I have an idea' look, yeah?" She rested her cheek in her hand and pretended to think. "Hmm, what could you possibly want to talk about?"

Kendall's smile widened as he looked her in the eye. He lowered his voice. "How're you feeling?"

Riley's eyes shifted. She leaned towards him and exaggeratedly lowered her voice as well. Clearly mocking him she said, "Why are you whispering?"

"I didn't know if it was something that you wanted anyone else to hear."

"Yeah, well, I have to apologize to everyone anyway."

"You've apologized one hundred times already, Riles."

"I know, but it doesn't seem like it's enough." Riley frowned and started to rub her arm, bringing her knee up to her chest as she did so. She rested her chin atop her knee. "I reckon things are going fine. I don't really like the medication I'm on now because it doesn't really make me feel much of anything." She waved towards the Swag Bags. "Normally I'm bouncing off the walls with excitement for these things but…" her blue eyes then shifted to him. "I would've been more excited to see you," She said honestly.

Kendall shook his head. He knew what he was getting into before they had even arrived in Australia. Ronan had made sure of that, calling him specifically to warn him how Riley would act a little differently than he remembered because of the new medication she was on. But that was the thing with their relationship, they were best friend and in some ways he cared more about that than their romantic relationship. He promised that he'd be there to help her through her problems and he was.

But he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that he didn't get anything other than a smile and a gentle hug when they arrived at the Jacksons's house. Even when they were just friends she showed more excitement. He was glad they were, at least, still on track from the last time they had been together. How many people could handle 'we can start dating, but I'm going to be going back home a few weeks later' as well as he did. Okay, yeah, he was frustrated about it; they had finally gotten through their problems with Jo and Lucy and figuring out their friendship just for her to turn around and leave shortly after their first date, of which had already been postponed three days from the original date.

"I don't know. You might've acted like you didn't care at all," Kendall teased. "I wouldn't put it past you."

"That's because I know it drives you crazy when I ignore you, mate," Riley replied.

Kendall chuckled. He pushed up the sleeves of his flannel shirt and leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs. "Do you think it's something you'll tell other people?" He asked. "Your…" he trailed off, unsure of how to phrase it. Her disorder? Her disease? All of it sounded bad.

"I reckon people already heard enough announcements from us for a while." Riley twisted her mouth to the side as she thought about it.

"You're afraid of what people will say," Kendall said.

It wasn't a question. He had heard, after the fact, how much she and her siblings had agonized over whether or not to announce they had been abused before ultimately deciding to do so. He could understand that. There were still many things about his past he couldn't talk about, could barely let himself even think about for that matter.

"That's the thing; I'm not ashamed of having a mental disorder. I'm ashamed of the way people _treat me_ because I have a mental disorder." Riley shrugged and ran her free hand through her hair. "It's why I can't take the jokes people make about me, about being angry over nothing."

"I never thought it got to you," Kendall said. He was sure he made a joke like that every once in a while.

"That's 'cause I'm good at hiding it, yeah? People don't get that when they say that I can be worse or make fun of when I do get mad that it slowly chips away at me until I can't take it anymore. Now I don't have to hide it."

"I think you have me to thank for that," Kendall remarked.

Riley smirked at him. "Yes, thank you so much for everything you have done."

He waved his hand, motioning for her to continue. "What about 'you're my hero' and all that?"

"Ha! Nice try, boofhead." She looked at him with a soft smile. "But I do want to say thank you."

"You're welcome." Kendall looked down and flicked his thumb to the side then twisted his wrist to give himself leverage to pin her thumb down. "You lose." Laughing, he leaned back in his seat as there was a knock on the door. Noah called for the person on the other side to come in and the door pushed open before Julius walked in, bent over and nearly hobbling as Sydney sat latched to his leg.

"Yo," Julius greeted everyone with a nod.

"Yo yo," his siblings replied.

"I don't know what's worse. Having to deal with Syd when he's on a sugar high or when he's taken out of school early." Julius reached down and grabbed onto Sydney's arms, lifting him up off his leg. Once he was on his feet he reached out and grabbed his youngest brother's face and stretched his mouth so that his teeth showed. "I'm pleased to say he has no cavities. And that I managed to sell some shirts to some fans that are waiting in the audience." He crossed his arms as Sydney went over to his brothers and forced himself into their chair as well. "How was school?" He chuckled when Riley, Rhuben, and Patrick all made groaning sounds in response.

"I wasn't talking to you lot, I was talking to them." Julius tilted his head over to Big Time Rush. "First day at a different school? What'd you think?"

"It's really different," Carlos said. "You don't have any lockers." His nose wrinkled. "And why don't you have a cafeteria?"

"There's a cafeteria…" Julius said slowly. Then he understood. "Oh, the canteen. Yeah, you get your food from there then go outside to eat. If it's raining then you go into a classroom and eat there." He looked at Carlos funny. "That was the strangest part to you?"

Kendall laughed. It actually was the weirdest part to him. He went on and on about how everyone had to carry their books around in their bags rather than having a locker to put it in. What about your lunch? Carry it in your bag or buy it from the canteen. What about your school books? Carry them. What about your sports stuff? In the sports complex. Then he saw the little 'lockers' they _did_ have and he remarked 'that's not a locker, that's a lunchbox!'.

The school day had been pretty cool. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James had followed Riley and Rhuben as they arrived at the school, after dropping Sydney off at his middle school. Patrick and Noah immediately branched off to go find their friends, saying they'd meet up for lunch later. The group got a quick tour of the campus, with Riley and Rhuben saying they didn't have a first period class for that day. Then going on to apologize for them not being able to meet their friends as they had forgotten they were having mostly reviews and tests to get ready for their end of the year exams.

Kendall didn't mind so much, it was still great to see their school campus and see how the classes worked. It was harder to figure out what they were talking about in some of the classes, in terms of the science class using the metric system and the history class talking about Australian history, but other than that he had fun.

There was just one thing he couldn't really get over, no matter how little and petty it was.

"Anyway, you might want to start heading out to your seats, they're getting ready for you to go on."

"I thought they were going to do some interviews in the dressing room first," Katie said.

"I reckon they're running late and are going to push that back to after the show." Julius waved his hand to the guys. "C'mon, I'll show you to your seats. It can be a bit of a maze back here if you're not careful, yeah?"

"Oh, one thing." Riley grabbed Kendall's attention. "Chances are they're going to ask which of us is single or not. I wanted to know what to tell them."

Kendall's eyebrows rose.

When he started dating his first girlfriend, Kayslee, neither of them had talked about it until they both said they assumed they re dating and that was that. (Come to think of it, he never actually broke up with her before leaving for Minnesota). When he and Jo started hanging out he assumed they were already together and dating. It explained her frustration of the day of the Palm Woods dance when he never actually asked her to go. But she had been happy when he said he thought they were together and she agreed. When he kissed Lucy they, technically, sort of, kind of, started going out before he told her that he actually _couldn't_ go out with her. When he and Riley finally told each other how they felt he thought they would start dating but she turned him down saying he needed to be on his own for a while. Then they went camping…and the rest was a story.

But they hadn't been going out that long and while he knew her like the back of his hand due to close friendship as much as she could be straightforward about things, she could be equally as mysterious, keeping him on his toes.

Instead of replying he asked, "What were you going to say?"

A familiar twinkle reached her eye. "What do you think?"

"Come on!" Julius said. "They can't wait much longer."

Riley got up from her seat and grabbed Kendall's hand, giving it a squeeze before she dropped it, sliding out the door.

Kendall sighed.

That was the part that was difficult for him. Where they both valued their friendship and relationship enough that outside of their friends and family they didn't let much outside thought come in. But all the same, it made it hard when he couldn't hold his maybe-girlfriend's hand in public when they both knew their careers would soon only be focused around that topic.

* * *

"So it's well known that you've worked with other bands and solo acts while you've been working on your own stuff," Kylie Gillies said, looking at her information card. "And that you decided to take off a year of your music."

"How does that work when you're still going to perform at the ARIAs?" Larry Emdur broke in. "It's not that far away."

Jo leaned forward in her seat as Rhuben took the chance to answer the question, Riley having answered the one before. "Well, when we decided to take the year off it was mostly for our own mental and physical health. We've been working on our career for _years_ without a break and it was slowly starting to weigh us down." She looked at her siblings for agreement and they nodded. "And we were thinking that with everyone that had been going around at that time we not only deserved the break but that we needed it to be an even better band."

"As for the ARIAs, that's when our taking a year off gets a little tricky to explain," Patrick said.

He stretched his legs out from resting on the legs of his stool to the floor and crossed them at the ankle. Jo looked back and forth from the monitor that sat in front of them to their friends sitting on stage answering the questions that were asked.

She had watched Big Time Rush's footage from Good Day LA on the internet after it had been taped and aired and while she was on _New Town High_ she knew how filming worked. But being on the other side to _watch_ it being filmed was much different. It was more fun in a way, the excitement and energy was still there but you didn't have to worry so much about being the one that said something wrong or made a mistake that halted production to shoot a scene all over.

"When we say we're taking the year off we don't mean to just stop and do nothing. We're workaholics in a way, but we know how to have our fun." His smile widened as the audience laughed. Jo found herself chuckling as well. It certainly was true, half of the things Big Time Rush got up to was because of the Jacksons getting in on it as well, and making it worse before it got better. "It just means that we're not actively working on a new album. Right now we're promoting _Black and White_ and have some singles and music videos that still need to be released off of that. And we have some shows like the ARIAs and some festivals and a small tour to do, but things are scaled way back. Smaller venues, less decoration on stage, but they're shows that _we_ wanted to do and chose to do while giving ourselves more time to be ourselves and be a family."

"It must be hard since you're a family band to just be a family," Ryan Phelan said.

"It can be," Noah said. He cleared his throat to speak up, making sure he was heard. "When you're working together professionally all the time, it can be hard."

"Yeah, I reckon sometimes we have to stop and remind ourselves that we're a family first and that we shouldn't take things so personally if we don't like a song or don't like a hook or like something better than the other because it'll just be brought home," Sydney said. "So we're making sure the two are kept separate."

"So you just performed your song _We're All To Blame_ off your album, Black and White, is that what yo're going to be performing at the ARIAs?" Kylie asked.

"We haven't actually decided what we're going to be performing there," Riley explained. "But there are a lot of choices from that album. Especially since there's the option of making it a single or a promotional single so it's something we're always thinking about, yeah?"

"And you're nominated for two awards and are presenting?"

"Yes, we're nominated for Album of the Year and Best Group. And Riles and I will be presenting the Producer of the Year award," Rhuben said. She brushed her strand of purple hair behind her ears. "Hopefully to Ronan even though there're a lot of beauty stuff that've been put out from producers."

The audience laughed again and Jo leaned over in her seat to look at Ronan, who was sitting with Mrs. Knight, Kelly, and Gustavo. He laughed and nodded appreciatively at the comment.

"Okay, let's go through some rapid fire questions," Larry said. He shuffled through his information cards. "Favorite color?"

"Red" "Purple" "Yellow" "Gray" "Blue"

The audience laughed at the rapid fire response they got.

"Favorite genre of music?"

"Rock" "Hip-Hop" "Rap" "Classic Rock" "Pop"

"Favorite dessert?'

"Ice cream" "Cake" "Pie" "Ice cream" "Flan."

Noah's face immediately screwed up at Sydney's comment. "Who likes flan?"

"Flan is good," Sydney defended himself.

Patrick snorted. "Flan is a jiggly-ass flesh colored mound of vomit, I don't think _anyone_ likes it, bro."

Jo burst out laughing, having to cover her mouth with her hands to keep from laughing too loud. But then she saw Camille, Stephanie, Kendall, Logan, James, Dak, Katie, and Lizzie trying not to laugh either and she laughed harder.

Carlos was the only one who looked unamused. "Flan is delicious!" He shouted out.

Ryan chuckled and the cameraman started to turn the camera around to get a shot of the audience. Beside her, Camille shot our her hand and grabbed onto Jo's wrist, digging her nails into her wrist. Jo cried out in pain and turned to Camille, just in time for her to start pulling Jo to her feet.

"Switch seats with me!" She hissed.

"What?" Jo hissed back.

"Switch seats with me, right now!"

Camille pulled Jo to her feet just as Logan practically dove over James and Carlos to get out of the seat next to Camille. Finally getting into her seat, Camille pushed Jo aside and she tripped, crashing into James. The two landed on one seat, bouncing James over onto Kendall, who cried out and quickly pushed him back into his seat. Jo sat down and leaned forward, resting her face in her hands so that her hair covered her face. She could feel herself starting to blush.

When she was sure the camera had turned away, hearing the interview being wrapped up, Jo turned to James and muttered, "Sorry about that."

He waved his hand. "Don't worry about it; it's not every day a pretty girl lands in my lap like that."

Jo raised her eyebrows. "It's never happened before? For a guy like you?"

"Not as much as I'd like to think," James replied. "At parties, at the movies, sitting on the bus in traffic. Not so much." He tilted his head towards Logan. "Besides, the last person I'd ever use as my wingman is Logan."

Jo leaned over and saw Logan slouched low in his seat, practically melting out onto the floor. He held his hands over his stomach, twiddling his thumb, looking everywhere but at the people around him and the cameras in front of him. Jo looked to her other side and made a face, seeing Camille playing with her hair, moving it in front of her face.

"What's up with them?" She asked.

"This is Logan we're talking about. Like Carlos, he doesn't always make sense." James lifted his hand and made the 'crazy' gesture by his ear, making Jo laugh.

Then the show ended and the group waited for the rest of the audience to leave from the stands before going down to greet their friends. Lizzie grabbed Katie's hand and practically dragged her down the steps, heading over to Patrick and Noah.

"That was so awesome!" She said, practically gushing. "I've never seen an interview like that before."

Dak made a sound of offense. "You've seen me do interviews all the time."

Lizzie waved him off, hip-bumping him out of the way. "Yeah, but you're old news." She then turned her attention to Patrick. "I didn't know you could jump so high."

"You watched them perform a cool song and the only thing you can think to mention is that you didn't know he could jump so high?" Katie asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Lizzie fake-laughed, scratching behind her ear. "At least I asked something."

Patrick blinked twice. "Sorry, did you say something? I couldn't hear over the sound of Jo's screams."

"I mean, I know you're a fan, but not _that_ much of a fan," Rhuben remarked, putting her arm around Dak's waist and leaning into his side. She grinned at Jo. "What was that?"

"That is what happens when Logan and Camille act like nut jobs," Jo said. She crossed her arms. "Especially when they can't sit next to each other all of a sudden." She quickly explained what happened and Patrick laughed. "It's not funny."

"From where I stand it is, though it's not every day a pretty girl falls into your lap," he commented.

"That's what James said."

"Huh." Patrick rubbed his chin. "Maybe I _have_ been spending too much time with him."

"I could've told you that," Noah remarked.

"Hey, I'm not complaining." Jo held up her hands. "I get the same complement in a matter of a few minutes? That's probably not going to happen again."

"Oh don't sell yourself short. Someone's going to snatch you up. It might be today, tomorrow…next year, who knows." Patrick laughed and ducked out of the way when Jo punched him on the arm. "Remember kids, violence is never the answer." He grasped Katie's shoulder. "C'mon, I'm sure you'd want to laugh at all of the lame questions we're going to be asked for these interviews."

"Only if I get that music player," Katie replied.

"You already broke my heart over it at least once, I'm not going to let you do it again."

Jo smiled. She turned her head and took a step back when she saw Rhuben staring at her. She was about to ask 'what' then noticed Rhuben lifting her eyebrow. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?" Rhuben shrugged. She waved off Dak and he went to talk to Riley, James, Sydney, and Carlos, who seemed to be in an animated debate about something.

"Like.. _that_. Don't look at me like that," Jo said.

Rhuben started to say something but Riley then walked over, looking back and forth between her twin to her friend. "Did I see what I thought I saw?" She asked. Rhuben just looked at her and Riley's eyes widened as she slowly nodded. "Thought so."

"Stop doing that twin speak," Jo said. Now she crossed her arms. "It's not a big deal."

"I didn't say it was, Jo-Jo." Riley said. She looked concerned as she regarded Jo. Jo glanced at Rhuben and saw she was giving a similar expression, understanding they were just trying to help. "You came up with that all on your own."

Jo sighed and rubbed her temples, suddenly starting to get a headache. This was supposed to be a good time and she was _already_ starting to attract drama. Not just because of whatever was going on with her best friend, not just because her ex-boyfriend was going to be staying in the same house when it wasn't that long that she had to truly figure out whether or not she wanted him back, but because when she was trying to have a bit of fun it seemed like everyone was watching her to see what she was going to do next.

Or maybe that was her own guilt?

Jo rubbed the back of her neck and watched the four younger teens disappeared around the corner to go to the dressing room.

"I hear ya."

* * *

 **A/N:** I'm working to get everyone some face time and I know that's not working as well as I used to do it, but I think I've got it now. Funny thing is, I never realized just how many characters we write about until they're all in one place, haha. But I hope you guys liked this one.

 **-Riles**


	5. Chapter 5: Like Me

**Chapter Five: Like Me  
**

* * *

"Album sales don't make anyone but the record company money. Its live shows, merch sales, appearances, sponsorships and endorsement that makes the band money. And I think that's what gives people a huge wakeup call when they start out. They think as soon as they make an album they're going to be rich. It takes a _lot_ more work than just making an album. But if you have that passion that drive within you then all means go ahead."

Gustavo blinked for a few seconds then stuck out his thumb, turning it down. He pressed his lips together and blew a raspberry, making Ronan frown in response. "Boring!"Gustavo practically shouted.

"I don't see you coming up with any other advice that these people may be asking for," Ronan pointed out.

"That's because you're being too soft," Gustavo said. He crossed his arms, shifting his eyes around his yellow-colored sunglasses, taking in Ronan's office. "These people want advice on what the music industry is like, you can't let them think that things are going to be as nice and sweet as a cotton candy cloud. They have to know it takes hard work, and determination, and that chances are they're going to fail!"

"I'm sure the boys have heard enough of that from you, too," Ronan replied.

"Ugh, are you _still_ arguing?" Kelly asked. She and Mrs. Knight walked back into Ronan's office, holding onto mugs of coffee. "This is just supposed to be an article of numerous music producers giving advice on how to get into the industry. Not how to crush their hopes and dreams because a bunch of babies like to think they're right."

"I'm not a baby," Gustavo snapped, slamming his fists down on the table.

Ronan rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, you sure are proving us wrong," Mrs. Knight pointed out. She lowered herself into a chair and crossed her legs. "What magazine is this for again?"

"Rolling Stone," Ronan replied. He lifted his chin from his hand to face her. "They're putting out an article my kids and they also mentioned how they're doing an article about music producers and I thought it would be a good idea for Gustavo to get his name in there too." Ronan's eyes shifted for a moment. "Notice how I said I _thought_ it was a good idea."

Mrs. Knight smiled and Kelly tried to hide her laughter.

"Any publicity is good publicity and I need to make sure the dogs do a great job here or else Griffin'll disband us," Gustavo said.

Kelly gave him a strange look." Griffin has been saying that to us since the guys started. Even when Mercedes was the one that said he should pick our demos. I don't think it's anything you need to be so worried about."

"Griffin is as crazy as Fujisaki is old, I don't put anything past either of them," Gustavo pointed out. He gesticulated wildly, almost knocking a picture frame off Ronan's desk, which he leapt up to grab before it crashed to the floor. Gustavo ignored the glare Ronan sent his way. "One wrong move and their popularity can plummet. Why do you think I wanted to control their every move on Social Media? To make sure they didn't' say anything stupid."

"Like you and Brussels?" Kelly teased.

"Brussels _SPROUTS!"_

"Okay. Okay." Mrs. Knight held up her hand, warning the two to keep from fighting.

Other than being Big Time Rush's manager—or Momager as the boys lovingly called her—she had gotten very adept to keeping the two from getting at each other's throats. Sure, Gustavo was usually the instigator but Ronan could eventually lose his temper and become as immature as Gustavo was. It was the last weekday of their first week in Australia and they were already starting to get on her nerves.

Of course it didn't help that she was in a completely different country and really could only sit on the sidelines and watch as the boys started their work overseas, and ran off as quickly as they could to hang out with their friends. She was supposed to be on vacation too, but she couldn't feel anything other than a slight sense of paranoia in the back of her mind.

No, not paranoia. Of acute frustration knowing what she was going to go back to LA to if she didn't make a decision soon.

"Fighting isn't going to help anybody. We're supposed to be talking about what's coming up next week for the boys, right?"

"Right," Ronan agreed. "Now that they've become acclimated to my kids' schedules and how they do things out here on a daily basis I think it's time to get them on a sort of schedule too. They already have slotted chances of opening for them at certain shows as well as having others that are strictly for them. I know they're here on vacation but they can't treat the entire stay like one."

"But they have to be kids, too," Mrs. Knight pointed out.

"And I agree with that," Ronan said. "If anything, I think that if they're going to have a show, they should work on it at least two days before; vocals and choreography, and the day of being a little lighter as they would know what they're doing."

"Wrong!" Gustavo interrupted.

Ronan sighed.

"They need to work as hard here as they do back in LA."

Kelly slowly started to smile. She crossed her legs at the knee and turned in her seat to completely face her partner. Well, she was more of his assistant, that was the job she had signed up for. But over the years the two had grown to be really great friends and they acted more like close friends than him being her boss. When she wasn't proving him wrong anyway. "And who's going to be the one to stick with them when they do that? Because it's most certainly not going to be me. You already gave me the time off that I asked for and I'm going to enjoy every second of it."

Mrs. Knight glanced over at Gustavo as he started to think about it. It didn't take too long for his eyes to grow wide with the realization that he was going to be the one stuck with the guys with everything they were doing, cutting into his own vacation time. The one that he had specifically said he was going to be spend _away_ from them. She could tell it wasn't going to take too long for him to change his mind.

"I mean, if you want, I could just help them out while they're here," Ronan said. He shrugged, nonchalantly, though Mrs. Knight had the sneaking suspicions he knew what he was doing. "Or I could have Alan do it, I don't trust anyone more than I trust him."

Gustavo gritted his teeth, smoke and steam nearly coming from his ears. "I don't think so, buddy! You're not the only one who knows how to work with successful bands. It may have taken some time for me to come back to it again after my last few failed attempts, but that doesn't make you better than me."

"You said it, not me."

Now Gustavo got to his feet. "I'll show you! I'll make Big Time Rush the best band in the world! Starting with this _and_ we're not going to take a break until they get there."

Ronan's smile immediately faded. He had gone a little bit too far. "Wait, I didn't say that."

"If James starts complaining about his workout regime being messed up or how Logan isn't able to go sight –seeing to any of the places he wants to go, I'm blaming you," Mrs. Knight said. She held her hands up as Kelly laughed. Gustavo, grumbling, pushed his way out of Ronan's office, nearly striking Noah in the face with the door that was flinging open.

Jerking his head back, Noah raised an eyebrow to watch Gustavo leave with Kelly trailing behind him, and then turned to Ronan. "What's up with him?" He asked.

"My mere presence, apparently," Ronan said.

Noah smirked. "Can't blame him, you called these guys over at the crack of dawn, yeah?" He pointed over his shoulder. "We need to get going now or we'll be late to the game."

"Right, right." Ronan started to stand up and gather his things together.

He picked up the notepad he and Gustavo had been scribbling on for the past hour to figure out what they would say for the magazine article. "I'll take these guys there and the rest of you can go in your cars, okay?" He held up his hand. "No speeding, okay?" Noah gave a thumbs up and left the room. Seconds later Riley and Rhuben headed inside. Ronan eyed them warily. "Amazing; I mention 'no speeding' and next thing I know you're here."

Rhuben gave a fake laugh."That's funny. But, we wanted to ask you something."

"Can you make it fast? I don't want any of you to be late."

"Sure, just as long as you give us the answer we're looking for, yeah?" Riley said.

"To what question?" He started to shuffle his thing together, moving back and forth from his desk to the filing cabinets behind him.

"Can we have a party?" Rhuben asked. Ronan turned and gave her a look. She rushed to continue. "Sort of as a 'welcome to Aus, come meet our friends' sort of thing." Ronan pressed his lips together as he thought and Rhuben turned to Riley, who quickly added, "Because we wouldn't be able to do schoolies. Because of our aggro schedule."

Rhuben jumped in again with the girls trading off, rushing to fill the silence so Ronan couldn't get a word in. "And we want everyone to meet our friends since they weren't able to at school—"

"—Not to mention we haven't really seen them in a while due to our finals and our own schedule so it'd be fun—"

"—And it'd be a safe place to hang out instead of at The Cross or something—"

"—Not that we'd even go there—"

"—Not after dark—"

"—We know there's really no curfew but we don't want to put them in any added extra danger or anything—"

"—And it'd be a pretty good post for our website, or at least a vlog. We haven't done one of those or our podcast in a while—"

Ronan pressed his hands over his ears for a moment then held up his hand. "How many people?"

"Including everyone here?" The twin asked in unison.

"Yes."

"Mmm, about thirty or forty," Rhuben said.

"When were you thinking on having it?"

"Tonight?"

Ronan picked up his calendar and looked it over. He nodded. "That should be fine, the rest of us are going out. Just so long as there's no alcohol or drugs."

Riley made a face as she tilted her head to the side. "I don't know if we can guarantee that for some of our friends. And I think Julius and Britt are coming so chances are _their_ friends are going to be around, too." She held up her hand. "But if things starting getting too aggro, we'll make them leave."

"Fine."

"Thanks!" The girls left the office.

Mrs. Knight shook her head. "I guess you're not too afraid of what's going to happen once we're gone," She remarked.

Ronan chuckled. "I worry more about what they do when I _am_ around," he said honestly. "Mostly because that's when they get bored and decide to use me as a target of one of their pranks. Did you see the last video they put up on their website of that annoying clicking sound they kept making?"

Mrs. Knight laughed.

Yeah, she saw that video.

Unfortunately for Gustavo it was something that the boys had picked up on after the Jackson's fans had started to send in their own videos of them annoying people with it as well. It was Carlos's idea originally, to mimic them and see how long it took for Gustavo to blow his top. So with Katie's help, hiding behind the scenes with a video camera, the boys took their day of going Rocque Records for a day to individually work on their vocals to put things to the test.

Kendall started it off, knowing his mere presence seemed to annoy Gustavo more than anything. When Gustavo's back was turned he made what was a cross between a chirping and a clicking sound. Softly, just so that Gustavo seemed like he was hearing things. Then it was James's turn.

He grinned as he made the sound, this time a bit louder than Kendall had done. Thus making James pretend to bury his nose into his set of lyrics and clear his throat, as if he were about to start singing. Gustavo glared but didn't say anything. Then Logan made the sound, but his was squeakier than the others, probably from fear of getting caught and Gustavo shouted at them to be quiet. The boys all insisted they hadn't done anything and there was probably a bunch of crickets in the record company. Then Carlos made the sound as loud as he possible could—which rivaled the sound of his high-pitched scream when Gustavo let out a scream of rage and started to chase after the boys, demanding to know why they were all ruining their day of vocals with their nonsense.

Of course it just made him even angrier when he found out the video had made its rounds around the internet and was now one of the top trending videos on YouTube. He hadn't stopped giving the boys a death glare since they did it and months had passed.

"Imagine that but ten times worse," Ronan said. He flipped through some papers, his eyebrows lowering as he did so.

Mrs. Knight hesitated in leaving. She knew it was time for them to leave, but she couldn't help but take notice of the photos that were placed on Ronan's desk. One of them were of him and his parents from long before, another was of him and two others she had never seen, then one of the Jacksons, and one of their parents. That made Mrs. Knight's eyebrows come together and unable to help it as she picked up the picture to examine it.

Why would he have a picture of people he'd never met on his desk?

Now that she thought of it, she didn't have many pictures in the room she shared with Katie back at the Palm Woods. They were all packed away in storage with the rest of their house in Minnesota, or she couldn't bring herself to look at them. It was a little sad, really, how easily she could tell the point of life it was just by looking at her face. When she was incredibly happy it was when Kevin was still around, when it looked like her smile was forced it was when Kevin was gone.

Not that she hadn't gotten over their separation by that point, but that was the key word wasn't it? They were separated, not divorced. And how were you able to get over a relationship that lasted longer than your eldest child had been alive when it ended in a crash and burn with flames shooting sky high?

There weren't many people in her life that managed to have such a strong hold on her; Kendall and Katie running a close second with…she lifted her gaze towards Ronan, suddenly noticing he was looking at her.

"Sorry," She said. She replaced the picture. "I didn't mean to snoop."

"It's not snooping when you have the picture out in the open," Ronan replied. He shrugged. "Now, if you were rifling through my desk that'd be an entirely different thing."

"Why? Do you have something to hide?"

"Only the stun gun I use to get my kids to be quiet for once." Ronan laughed at his own joke. "Have I ever told you that I think I met their parents once before?" Mrs. Knight's eyes widened in surprise. "It was my first trip out here. Right after college, shortly after starting my company."

Mrs. Knight looked amused. "So you graduated from college then went straight to Australia?"

"No. I graduated, made sure all of my stuff was out of my parents' house, and _then_ went off to Australia," Ronan explained. He thought for a second. "I emancipated myself when I was seventeen and by that point I think they got the idea I didn't want them in my life. It wasn't until I went to Australia that they _really_ understood. Either way, I got to Australia on a six month VISA and started to look around to see what I could do out here and there was a couple I met while trying to navigate the city and train station with their toddlers with them. We got to talking and the man mentioned he was a scientist who worked in a lab as well as teaching some classes at the local university, while the woman was his assistant when she wasn't working from home."

"How old were you then?" Mrs. Knight asked.

"Twenty-one," Ronan said. Mrs. Knight quickly tried to calculate their ages. "Considering I'm sixteen years older than Riley and Rhuben, if it were them, Patrick and Noah would've been about two years old."

"Oh." Mrs. Knight nodded. Now she got it. There were plenty of reasons as to how it could or couldn't have been them. Or how he wouldn't have known; if he didn't get any names, if they weren't specific to how many children they had…how much time they spent together that day. "And you decided to keep the picture just in case?"

"Yes and no. Yes, because, just in case, I'd like for them—" He tilted his chin upwards, indicating the sky. "- to know I'm not trying to replace them. But also because if it was them I owe them my livelihood because it was their niceness that made me realize I wanted to work here. So I extended my VISA and started to go back and forth. It was ironic that I ended up meeting my kids in LA rather than back here but, like I said, I don't know if it really was them." Ronan's eyes narrowed as Mrs. Knight lowered the photo and picked up the one of the two boys. "Those are my brothers, Aaron and Ely."

"You don't talk about them much," Mrs. Knight pointed out.

"That's because I haven't seen them in about five years," Ronan explained. "We talk on the phone and send emails every now and then but I haven't seen them. Every now and then things are great between us but then something happens and old things come up and we don't talk…kind of like you and Kevin."

Mrs. Knight took in a sharp breath and lowered the photographs back to the desk. "How do you always now when Kevin is what's bothering me?"

"Take it from a guy who's been engaged before, I'm, like, the mayor of this situation. You learn to notice it pretty quickly," Ronan remarked. "Though you invested a lot more time into the relationship than I did with my ex-fiancée." He grimaced, bringing a hand up to his forehead. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that or brought it up. It's none of my business. Just my luck to stick my foot in my mouth."

Mrs. Knight smiled. It was always so funny to see everyone around her become so uncomfortable when the topic of her and almost-somewhat-ex-husband came up. It was like everyone else wanted to shy away and squirm and act like it wasn't happening. "No, it's okay." She brushed her hair behind her ears. "Trust me; I'm glad someone wants to talk about it instead of acting like it never happened. I mean, you think getting cheated on would be the worst part, but it's the sympathetic looks and whispers that gets to you more than anything else." She sighed, bringing her hands up to rest atop her head. "And the not knowing how you feel because on one hand you're devastated but on the other you're wondering what it was you could've done differently because you still love them and that never really goes away."

"So what's made you so upset? You've been in a funk since you got here."

Mrs. Knight looked over her shoulder to make sure there was no one by the door to the office, listening. She could hear loud voices and footsteps from the other parts of the house. It made her smile, it was just as loud as the Palm Woods could be, it made her feel at home. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she said, "Kendall and Katie don't know this yet, but it's getting closer to Kevin's and my court case to decide if we're going to finally be divorced or if we're going to stay married."

The neutral expression on Ronan's face didn't change as he started to ask, "You were together for…" the he paused. "Not going to go down that road," and then said, "You were together for a long time even if you weren't _together_ while Kevin was gone. I've always wondered what made you decide to stay, technically, married, instead of just getting a divorce."

"It's hard to stop loving someone after something like that," Mrs. Knight said slowly. "This was a man I knew completely throughout our relationship and marriage and then it was like it was all a lie. That picture perfect image I thought we had was hard to get rid of. There was a lot of hurt and confusion between us and he even told me multiple times that he still loved me. But we grew to be different people and…" she waved her hand. "We've been doing this for years and we're still not close to figuring out what we want."

"All the more reason to go out tonight, then," Ronan said. He roughed a hand over his hair. "I hope you're an adventurous eater."

"What about Gustavo and Kelly?" Mrs. Knight asked.

Ronan smiled. "I said we were going out, I didn't say anything about bringing them."

* * *

 **A/N:** I ended up pushing what I originally had planned for this chapter to the next one for one simple reason; I haven't written Ronan/Mrs. Knight for a long time and I missed it. It also doesn't really help that I recently re-watched Just My Luck (the inspiration for their relationship) and it gave me some inspiration. Plus, it brings up a topic of the Knight family that we haven't spoken about or really worked with in a while (though some season 4 stories does give a bit of a spoiler for it).

Honestly, I don't know how old Mama Knight is and I'm probably never going to mention it, so please don't put too much attention into how long hers and Kevin's relationship/marriage was and how old they were when Kendall and Katie came.

I hope you all enjoyed it anyway.

 **-Riles**


	6. Chapter 6: Backwards and Forwards

**Chapter Six: Backwards and Forwards**

* * *

Noah leaned over his sports bag, rifling through it to make sure everything for his lacrosse game was inside. Gloves, pads, cleats, shin guards, mouth guard, extra water, pain pills…that should've been everything if he didn't leave anything in his locker. The last thing he wanted to do was run all the way from the sports fields back to the school and tip-toe by the receptionist while wearing cleats indoors—which was a big no-no as every student knew—and make it back in time for the game.

Not when he was already so nervous.

"Hey Noah!" Lizzie chirped as she walked into the kitchen, carrying a tall stack of bowls and spoons. Even from where he sat Noah could see the melted ice cream that had dried and stuck to the side sof the bowls. "Where do I put this?"

"Did you and Katie really eat all that?" Noah asked.

"Hey, a girl's got to eat and you get pretty hungry when you're talking all night." Lizzie paused. "Well, whispered. Apparently Riley and Rhuben don't like to be woken up so much." Noah smiled. "Where do I put this?" She asked again.

"Just throw it in the dishwasher," Noah replied. His eyebrows lifted when he noticed Lizzie suddenly hesitate.

Her green eyes moved around the kitchen for a moment before she stepped further inside. Still, Noah kept quiet, watching in amusement as Lizzie first moved towards the refrigerator. She looked at it curiously then slowly worked her way around the room.

Lizzie's lips moved quietly as she spoke to herself, questioning whether something was a dishwasher or not, bumping into a few cabinets as she did so. Finally, Noah cleared his throat. Lizzie turned to him and he pointed with his thumb directly towards the dishwasher. She nodded her thanks then opened it. She blinked twice then hefted the bowls and spoons into the top drawer, making Noah jump at the sound.

"I wasn't being serious about throwing them in there, Lizz," Noah remarked.

Pouting, Lizzie crossed her arms. "How was I supposed to know? I haven't done dishes before."

His eyes narrowed. "You haven't done any dishes?"

"No."

"Ever?"

"No." He raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me for having maids. Every time I saw dishes in the sink I was amazed at how they would get there because I never took them from my room. And the next time I'd see them they'd be clean."

"So if I put dishes in the sink, how do you reckon they'd be clean?" Noah asked.

Lizzie scratched the back of her head. "I don't know. I just thought you put soap on them and they'd clean themselves."

Noah smiled. He pressed his lips together. He bit the insides of his cheeks. Anything that would keep his laughter at bay. Not just because it was still early but he didn't want to disturb anyone who might've still been asleep. But also because he didn't want Lizzie to feel bad that she had—and rightfully acknowledged—that she grew up very privileged. But he couldn't help it, he laughed, making Lizzie roll her eyes.

"It's not _that_ funny," She said.

"Oh, you have no idea," Noah replied. He pushed back from the table and pushed her aside to quick re-arrange the dishes. "There's a certain way they go in or else you won't be able to close the door."

"You have to put them in a certain way, too?" Lizzie asked.

"That's what she said," Patrick remarked, swinging into the kitchen from the doorway. He landed on the ground, the weight of the bag draping off his back nearly knocking him backwards. "Though I'm slightly scared of the conversation topic I missed."

"Just talking about the dishwasher," Noah replied. He tossed his head over towards Lizzie. "She doesn't know what one is."

Patrick smirked and Lizzie marched over and smacked him on the arm. "It's not funny. And besides, Noah said he'd teach me how to use one."

"I never said that," Noah defended himself. He pushed the door closed with his foot. "I already have to do it for my chores, why would I want to teach someone else to do it?"

"Because you'll be nice," Lizzie said. When she saw that wasn't going to work she stuck out her lower lip and batted her eyelashes. Feeling his face starting to turn red, Noah pointedly looked away to grab his bag from the countertop. Patrick laughed and Lizzie pushed him away from her. "Ugh, whoever said that girls can get whatever they want by flirting?" She joked.

"I didn't say that either," Noah said.

"I think that's the most I've heard you said since yesterday," Patrick said.

Noah grabbed a cleat out of his bag and threw it to Patrick, who ducked out of the way, making it smack into the refrigerator and leave a mark. Patrick and Noah both made identical grimacing expressions and Patrick immediately moved a calendar that was hanging on the fridge to cover the spot. "I'll fix it later."

Katie looked over as she walked into the kitchen and laughed. "That's what we had to do with the hole in the wall when we first moved into the Palm Woods," She said. " _And_ the hole that Carlos's foot made when he and James were wrestling, _and_ the hole that was made when Logan shot out of the swirly slide too fast."

"The swirly slide isn't even at the wall, it opens to the floor," Lizzie reminded her. Katie gave her a look and she smiled. She and Katie tended to sit in the area at the top of the swirly slide and talk quietly to each other, one of the few areas that gave them privacy when the boys were around, as well as used it to eavesdrop on the guys' conversations.

Or as Lizzie also said, which made Katie cringe every time; it was a good opportunity to boy-watch.

"Yeah, but he got so dizzy coming down the slide that when he stood up he walked right into the wall and left a mark from his big head," Katie explained. "Having to explain that to my mom was harder than explaining why the front door kept leaving holes in the wall."

Patrick shrugged. He reached into the refrigerator to take a long sip of orange juice from the carton. "In our defense, the dry-wall in your lot's place is very flimsy." He turned his head and threatened to spit his mouthful of juice on Katie when she moved to swat at him.

Noah chuckled.

Then Katie turned to Lizzie with raised eyebrows. "You look like you're ready for the game," she remarked, taking in Lizzie's pigtails and cheerleading inspired outfit. "You know there are not cheerleaders for lacrosse or soccer, right?"

"There is now," She replied, placing her hands on her hips. "Besides, it's the best thing than not being able to play myself. I haven't played soccer in so long, I've been so busy." She tilted her head to the side. "Didn't you used to play lacrosse?"

"Yeah, but you couldn't hit anyone," Katie said. "What fun is that?" She then crossed her arms, suddenly looking uncomfortable, of which Noah couldn't figure out the reason why. "So, this party that you guys are throwing tonight. Are you friends going to be there?"

"Yep! Everyone'll be there! And we can't wait for you to meet them," Patrick said. He bent towards the floor and picked up the cleat, tossing it back to Noah who examined it before shoving it inside his bag. Something white caught his attention while he pushed a towel aside and realized it was a piece of paper. He unfolded it and tilted his head to the side to read.

 _Have a good game today!_

 _XO – Lizz._

Noah glanced up at Lizzie, who smiled back at him and he blushed, smiling as he looked away. He folded up the note and, instead of sticking it back where he found it, he put it in a smaller outside pocket to protect it. Then he turned his bag around and pushed it away as if nothing had happened and crossed his arms, resting his chin on the bag.

He tuned back into the conversation that Patrick, Lizzie, and Katie were having. And right at the opportune moment to see Patrick crash and burn with a slip of meaning.

"So that means that we get to meet all of your gorgeous girlfriends then," Lizzie teased.

"Some of our friends are girls, yeah," Patrick agreed, voice almost moving to a crawl as if he was expected to be slapped for saying something wrong.

Katie smiled teasingly, though Noah noticed uncertainty flash through her eyes. "You didn't deny Lizzie's saying they were gorgeous," She teased. "Must be something you're not telling us."

Patrick shrugged. "I guess I never really noticed. I mean, it's not like I like you for the way you look." Noah closed his eyes and turned his head away, feeling the temperature of the room drop a few degrees as soon as the words left his mouth. Patrick pressed his lips together and made a low humming sound when Katie glared and stormed out of the kitchen. "That came out a _lot_ worse than I meant it."

"You think?" Noah asked.

Lizzie shook her head. "You really need to think before you speak."

"And you really need to understand that I don't work that way," Patrick snapped back. Now he pouted as he sat down at the kitchen table. Lizzie exchanged a look with Noah and sat down as well. The three were quiet as the rest of the house stirred to life and sound.

"Hey, are you guys ready to go?" Rhuben asked. She, Dak, and Camille walked into the kitchen. "You lot are riding with me."

"Yep! I'm ready to go!" Lizzie stated, leaping up from her seat with renewed energy. "Ooh!" She reached out and grasped the front of Rhuben's jersey, pulling it out to get a good look over the navy blue and white. "This is a nice jersey."

"Leave it to my fashion obsessed sister to care what even a _soccer jersey_ looks like," Dak said with a roll of his eyes.

"At least I care about something other than how my stupid hair looks," Lizzie shot back. "Newsflash, it sticks up. There's not much you can do with it and it doesn't look cool." She then turned to Patrick, who made an offended sound. "No offense."

Noah got a good look at his sister. "Are you oaky? You look like you haven't gotten much sleep."

"I've slept better," Rhuben said honestly. She tilted her head towards Camille. "Riles and I stayed up working her through her crisis first, then this one,"—she nodded towards Lizzie—"Wouldn't stop whispering all night."

"It's the sugar," Lizzie said.

"Well, what's wrong up?" Patrick asked Camille. "Is it the Logan thing?"

Camille nodded. But Dak looked confused so Camille quickly went through the story as to why her father didn't initially like Logan, how their relationship grew, and what made it so that her father decided they weren't allowed to date. "So you thought coming to a different country with your boyfriend would stick it to him…?" Dak asked.

Rhuben gave him a look. "What?" He asked, which she ignored and said, "It's easy to keep him off the trail. We said we'd intercept if he ever called, which I doubt he will considering the international charges are so bloody high." She pulled her purple strand of hair behind her ear. "And we said that the guys are staying in a hotel rather than here with us."

"Ok." Noah licked his lips. "But how are they going to avoid pictures being taken of them? Because they will if they're around us."

"Is Paparazzi bad here?" Camille asked.

Dak shrugged. "Not that bad," he replied. "At least, not so bad the last time that Lizz and I were here."

"That's because we weren't doing any appearances or anything at the time," Patrick explained. Then he addressed Camille. "It's not _that_ bad, but it can be. For us anyway. It's usually at airports and events and if they find us out somewhere that they usually flock. But it won't be a problem at school, yeah?"

"But you still have to worry about every other picture," Noah pointed out quietly. "And fans. They take pictures of everything."

"So, just…if her dad asks, say she's dating someone else," Dak pointed out. "Use a beard."

"A beard?" Camille repeated.

"A beard only works if she's _gay_ , dork," Lizzie pointed out. Dak stuck his tongue out at her. "But I get your point. You could always pretend to date someone if your dad asks, while you're still really dating Logan. The question is, who would it be?"

"Maybe James," Dak suggested. "He's not dating anyone right now. And you guys are pretty good friends."

"Yeah, and he's not really…someone your dad should worry about so much," Lizzie agreed.

Rhuben made a face, shaking her head. "Uh-uh, fake relationships _never_ work. Fans are a lot more perceptive than people give them credit for." Then she smirked and swiveled her head to look at her boyfriend, who suddenly found the ceiling to be very interesting. "But you should know, yeah? I mean, you've had _so_ many fake relationships."

"Not _many,"_ he defended himself. "Only, like…ffffour?"

"Actually it was six," Lizzie said helpfully. "If you count one of them twice." Dak glared at her and Lizzie smiled sweetly. She fake-gasped. "Rhu, you're not afraid that Dak's fake dating you _are_ you?" She continued to grin evilly at her brother.

"He better not be or all of that work stalking would've been wasted," Patrick replied. Now Rhuben glared at him and he hunched his shoulders. "I'm just…going to wait in the car. C'mon, Noah!" He grabbed his twin's arm and dragged him from the room, grabbing Lizzie as he went.

She giggled, following along with them.

"You're really evil to your brother, you know that?" Noah said to her.

"I wouldn't be his little sister if I wasn't," Lizzie replied. "And besides, comments like that are what put them together." She drew a heart in the air with her fingertips. "If anything, they should be thanking me."

Rhuben shook her head as she retrieved her keys from where she left them on the counter before. She looked up, noticing Dak lean against the same counter and turn a sincere gaze her way. "Yes?" She asked.

"You know I'm not fake dating you, right?" Dak asked quietly. The corner of Rhuben's mouth turned up when she noticed his insecure side showing through. "I wouldn't do that."

"I know," Rhuben replied. Then she smiled teasingly. "After all of the work you've done to prove you're a good guy, it'd be a shame if you wanted to muck it all up by pretending to date me." She reached out her hand and gently laid it on the side of his face, making him smile. "I know you'd never do that, Dak."

"Yeah, but…I wish everyone else knew it," Dak said. His eyes shifted to the side. "I mean, these guys are more your friends than mine. All of my friends were marketers and record execs."

"Mm, must've been a boring life," Rhuben said.

"Yeah, all of those residual checks from my TV movies, soundtrack sales, and commercials really kept me warm but it wasn't like actually having people to talk to," Dak said. He meant it as a joke but Rhuben could hear the bite of bitterness in his tone. She stepped forward and lifted her chin, giving him a long kiss. She felt butterflies erupt in her stomach and take flight over her whole body as they usually did when she kissed him. "Thanks, Sugar Plum."

"For what?" Rhuben laughed, pulling her head back. "Kissing you? You don't have to thank me for that."

"Oh yeah, I do," Dak said, making her laugh. "No, I mean for having faith in me."

"Eh, if I don't know one else will," She teased. "You're welcome, Dizzy." She turned at the sound of shuffling footsteps behind her and laughed when Julius walked into the kitchen with Sydney hanging off of his neck and Patrick and Noah hanging by his legs saying, "You know, this stopped being cute years ago." "Julius!" Rhuben hurried over to give him a hug.

"Hey, Munchkin!" Julius gave his little sister a hug. "You're acting like I didn't just see you a few days ago."

"You're coming to the game?" Rhuben asked.

"Of course, sis. You haven't missed any of mine while you lot have been here so I wouldn't miss yours."

"Where's Brittany?"

"In the car, I just need to get the extra keys since Ronan's taking Mrs. Knight out tonight."

"Hey." Dak greeted Julius with a lift of his chin.

Julius returned the gesture. "Hey." Then he addressed his brothers. "Let's go," he said and shuffled out of the room once more.

Rhuben spun her keys around her finger as Dak put his arm around her shoulders and leaned into her. "You know, I don't think Julius likes me very much."

"He likes you just fine," Rhuben reassured him. "Actually, I think he likes you more than Kendall."

"Why's that?"

"Ask him why he calls Kendall 'Player' and then get back to me."

* * *

James shifted his hand to the side and used a lacrosse stick to catch the ball that headed by him. It nestled perfectly into the pocket, only jerking his hand back a little bit. Then he flicked his wrist and shot the ball back to Patrick, who caught it in the netting of his stick then threw it over to Noah. Noah pulled it out and shook his stick back and forth before nodding his thanks to James and ran across the field to the rest of his teammates.

James caught Patrick before he could leave. "So what'd you do to Katie? She's been in an even worse mood than the time I accidentally sat on her Dean Ambrose action figure and broke it." He shrugged. "Or at least I think that's what it was supposed to be, it didn't look so great afterwards."

"I'd get into it, but I don't have the time," Patrick said. He held his gloved hand up to him. "Thanks for the warm up!"

He jogged back over to the set of bleachers, stopping to sign autographs of some students that came up to him, before reaching his friends again. "Yeah, I got nothing out of that," he relayed to Kendall.

"And you know Katie isn't going to say anything," Kendall added, nodding over to his sister, who looked like she was pretending not to notice that a lacrosse game was going on by deciding to sit facing the soccer game on the field behind them. "Thanks for trying." He reached up and rubbed his red earlobe. "I thought she was going to rip my ear off."

"Yeah, me too," James agreed, gently touching his throbbing earlobe as well. "For someone so small she has a lot of strength in her fingers."

Jo laughed as James moved to sit by her on the bleachers. He noticed Stephanie pointing a camera their way and the two leaned together for her to take a quick picture before Jo said, "You've been with Katie for how long and you still think it's a good idea to force her to talk?"

"Hey, I'm her big brother," James said, tapping himself on the chest. "Or at least one of them. She should be comfortable talking to me about boy problems."

"Let her figure things out on her own," Jo said. "There's nothing worse than having a lot of people give their two-cents on a situation." She rolled her head towards Camille, who was sitting on her other side. " _Right_ Camille?"

Camille rolled her eyes and held up her hands. "It was just a suggestion. I don't even know if he'd go along with it?"

"Who'd go along with what?" James asked.

"Oh come on, you know he would to help Camille," Stephanie said, finally lowering her camera.

"Help Camille with what?" James frowned when no one responded to him. It was like he was invisible. Even Kendall, Carlos, and Logan were already becoming engrossed with watching the games set up. Riley and Sydney sat nearby, holding posters in their hands that read _My Brother is Better Than Your Brother_ and _My Sister is Better Than Your Sister_ respectively. They didn't seem to be paying too close attention to the conversation either.

"Again, it was just a suggestion," Camille said.

Jo and Stephanie exchanged a look and motioned to James at the same time saying, "It's James," and Jo further clarifying with, "He doesn't need much incentive to do stuff. All you have to do is give him a new comb or…a mirror."

"Help with what?!" James finally shouted. "I'm not invisible you know!" He then paused, bringing his mirror form his pocket and studied his reflection. "At least, I hope not. It'd be a shame if I wasted the last couple of days of being seen by doing nothing more than following people around."

Jo rolled his eyes, Stephanie laughed, and Camille nudged him on the arm.

"We were talking last night about Camille's and Logan's problem with her dad and how he'd find out if they were together behind his back, you know because of pictures and stuff," Stephanie explained. "Trying to figure out what to do and Dak suggested that she fake-dates someone for her dad but gives her free reign to still date Logan."

"Oh, yeah, kind of like the Princess Svetlana from Kerplankistan," James said.

"And look how well that turned out," Jo reminded him.

"Yeah…that wasn't _too_ great," James said. But then he held up a finger. "But what about you Miss. 'I have a boyfriend'. Yeah! You remember that?"

Jo flushed and turned away.

"That's what I thought."

"Anyway, if it helps Camille and my best buddy out, sure why not?" James said. "I'll post for whatever picture you want or talk whomever you need me to just as long as it doesn't interfere with me getting to meet some hot girls from Down Under."

"I think you'll take care of that yourself, honestly," Stephanie cracked.

"You'll really help?" Camille asked. She looked like she was starting to become excited by the idea.

"As long as you promise that Logan won't punch me again," James said. He pulled at the front of his shirt with an air of confidence. "Not that he could. But at least he can't hate me."

"Oh, no, no no." Camille reached out Jo and grasped James's hands. "I'll explain everything to him. I promise nothing will happen this time."

"Then yeah, no problem. Just tell me when and where—"James didn't get a chance to finish his statement as Camille crushed him in a tight hug, nearly squishing all of the air out of him. "Okay, please don't kill me before you get your happy ending, Camille."

"Thank you!" Camille squealed. "You're the best!" She bounded down the bleachers and over to Logan to tell him the good news.

Jo bobbed her head back and forth as she sing-songed, "This isn't going to work."

"You just have no faith," James said.

"I just know you," Jo replied. She then nodded to Kendall, Carlos, and Logan. "And him, and him, and him and your plans like this _never_ work."

"Yeah." James lifted himself up onto the bleachers and sat down next to her. He grinned, looking her in the eye, making her look at him suspiciously in return. "But I plan to have some fun while it lasts."

* * *

 **A/N:** This chapter ended up getting so long that I needed to split it into two chapters. So for this story chapters 1-7 takes places in a week. But the pacing will move forward and more of the Jacksons's past will be brought in though there is still the shared focus with BTR.

I hope you all enjoyed it anyway.

 **-Riles**


	7. Chapter 7: After The Party Is Over

**Chapter Seven: After The Party Is Over…**

* * *

The lacrosse and soccer games and surfing competition took up most of the day. When the group got back to the house, the Jacksons quickly went to work to finish setting up their party while their friends went to sleep. Carlos hadn't made it past the living room before crashing on the floor, making Ronan find a pillow and blanket to cover him. Like zombies, the others dragged themselves up to the rooms they were staying in.

The time change in Australia from LA was taking its toll; Kendall had never felt so drowsy in his life. Not even when he had to get up early to go to hockey practice, before the crack of dawn, or when he woke up early to work at the grocery store.

Of course, none of them were as cool. He had been in Australia for a week and even though he had spent most of the time at the house, as Gustavo and Kelly said they wanted to make sure the boys got settled. Or as Kendall and the boys knew, they wanted at least one week without the guys getting into whatever trouble they manage to get into when they're alone for more than five minutes. Actually, Gustavo had even threatened them some of their pay If they couldn't make it for a week without getting into something.

Challenge accepted.

Mostly because they had no choice in the matter.

Once the week was over they were going to be going back to work as much as they were going to relax and he wanted to make sure to have a good time.

Kendall jerked and opened his eyes when he heard a loud snore. He lifted his head and looked over his shoulder to the other side of the room. For a moment he was disoriented, wondering why he wasn't seeing the familiar festoons of hockey and band posters. A light sigh escaped his lips and Kendall ran a hand over his face, remembering he wasn't at the Palm Woods. _Not that you'd know with Logan's snoring,_ he thought.

There was another snore and Kendall's eyebrows came together. _That's not Logan,_ he realized. Kendall propped himself up on his elbow and glanced at the bed across the room. He chuckled to himself watching Logan and Camille sleep quietly, wrapped up in each other's arms. Or as quietly as they could be with Logan's snoring and Camille's…Kendall wasn't quite sure what it is. It sounded like squeaking every time she breathed out. At least they were getting _some_ time together.

Kendall was publicly against their plan of Camille fake-dating James as far as her father was concerned, but at the same time he couldn't blame them for the thought. When he was dating Jo, Mr. Taylor had made it clear that he didn't particularly like him. It wasn't that way at first; the two got along very well, but then he had accidentally kept Jo out a little past her curfew. Okay, two hours late to a ten hour curfew was _really_ bad, and he was late to his _own_ curfew and his mother was _not_ happy. But even she knew how important the prom was to him and didn't ground him…until _after._

Not being able to see your boyfriend or girlfriend the way you wanted to was always hard. And he certainly knew what it was like. He felt it now, too. Being able to see Riley was great, it was good to see that things were working better for her and he could see a legitimate difference in her attitude. But a part of him felt, empty in a way. They hadn't really been able to hang out the way they used to since he arrived. He knew part of it was due to her work, that was something all of the adults in his life reminded him of, that they were going to be busy as the biggest part of their career was stationed in Australia.

That was fine.

Part of him knew it was him; he wasn't sure how to act around her. Shortly after the camping trip and the change of her medication they were going back to Australia. But he also knew part of it was her, and her shame. She had apologized so many times before for what she had rudely said to all of her friends during a psychotic break. He forgave her for what she said to him, but she insisted, 'how can you forgive someone who says you ended up just like your father? That you're a selfish jerk who doesn't expect to work hard and just be handed things, and ruins every relationship around him?'.

The same way he had managed to come face to face with his father when he had to; with patience and understanding. He was patient to listen to her grievances and her explanation as to how she needed help and understood the things she said may have been things she thought at some point and only blurted it out to purposefully hurt. Besides, in his opinion, it wasn't as bad as the things she had said to their friends and he could see how much it still crushed her. And as for his father, he was patient when they had to be around each other and understood that no matter what, Kevin was still his dad, despite how much animosity he still held for him.

Logan stirred, hearing Kendall slide off his bed, carefully pressing his feet to the floor. A lazy smirk came to his face. "Making sure there aren't any spiders?" He asked.

"You try having one tap-dancing on your face when you wake up and tell me how you feel." Kendall visibly shuddered. He wasn't afraid of spiders by any means, but he had heard enough horror stories about the poisonous wildlife there that it made him a little weary. It didn't help that he spent most of the morning trying to rub the feeling of a spider crawling on him off, especially considering how hairy it was. He nodded towards Logan. "Don't do something I wouldn't do."

"Don't worry, I won't." Logan rolled over, tightening his grasp around Camille and went back to sleep.

"Weren't you the one who said that you'd never go to a party again after the last one we threw?"

Now Camille stirred. "Kendall, shut up," she muttered.

"I'm just saying, there's a reason why we call him the 'uptight one'." He used air quotes around the words before leaving the room. He carefully and quietly closed the door behind him before leaving the basement, his eyes moving to the door that held the label, PanDEmonium on it.

How successful did you have to be to get a recording studio in your house? Kendall left the basement and looked over at the living room; spotting Carlos perched on the arm of the couch, peering over at the ground. James knelt behind him, hands on his shoulders, leaning close behind him. Jo slept quietly on the other couch.

"Is it there?" James asked.

"No, not that I can tell," Carlos replied.

Kendall's eyebrow rose. Then he sucked in a deep breath. "I know I'm going to regret asking this because this image is so much better." Kendall smiled to himself. "But what are you doing?"

"We're checking to see if there are any spiders," James explained. He kept his gaze to the ground. "Carlos here thinks they're stalking him."

"They _are_!" Carlos insisted. "All during that soccer and lacrosse game they were _everywhere_ I went!" He held up his finger. " _And_ at the beach, there were even more along the boardwalk and in the sand. It's a conspiracy, I tell you!"

"Or maybe they like the taste of your blood," James teased. He pulled back his lips, making a hissing sound as he showed off his canines.

Kendall tilted his head to the side. "Okay, now I get it when people say we can be a bit too close." He paused for a moment. "Okay, I get it when my _mom_ says it." He turned on his heel, allowing James and Carlos to come to their own conclusion with his statement and left the room, grinning to himself when it took him only a few steps before the horrified screams reached his ears.

Seconds before Jo's angry yelling was heard afterwards.

Kendall walked up to the top floor. He paused on the landing, realizing the strange feeling over him was that the house was quiet. Since they had arrived, no since they had met the Jacksons things were _never_ that quiet. Still, it had to just be the calm before the storm as far as they were concerned. It was only a few hours until the house would be filled with a bunch of teenagers and that was _never_ quiet. He smiled to himself, finally ending up at his destination.

Kendall stood in the doorway to Riley's room for a moment, watching as she paced back and forth, head bent to stare at her phone. Every few seconds a murmur of frustration would come from her mouth before she flopped down in the middle of her bed, crossing her legs. Her eyebrows came together in an intense expression that only brightened when Kendall cleared his throat, announcing his presence.

"Hey Hockey-Head," she greeted.

"Hey." Kendall crossed the room to her but stopped before sitting on her bed. Like he ran into a wall. It was strange, he had been in her room countless times in LA but here it felt like he had to be invited in. This was more her home than California was, she mentioned to him time and time again. With most of her life being there it was—no pun intended—foreign and he needed and invitation before becoming completely comfortable.

Riley looked up from her phone and patted her bed, motioning for him to sit down. Clearly she didn't feel the same way Kendall did. "Other than setting up for this party, trying to convince Carlos that there aren't any bloody spiders stalking him, and dealing with this supposed crisis at Blazing Phoenix? No, Hockey-Head, I'm not busy at all." She smiled. "Not for you, anyway. Why, what's up?"

Stretching on the foot of her bed, Kendall smiled. He ran a hand through his hair before glancing around her room. Riley studied his movements, watching as his eyes darted around from thing to thing, not stopping for long on one place. Almost like he were nervous to be there. "I was hoping you had some time to talk."

For a brief moment, Riley looked confused. "I reckon we've been talking since you got here."

Kendall's eyes darted back to her face, locking his green eyes on hers. Riley felt her insides twist and turn warm. He had no idea how happy he made her. "No, I mean _really_ talk. We've been here for a week and we haven't gotten a chance to be alone."

" _Oh_." A smirk came to Riley's face and she rested her arms on her crossed legs. "So what're you more annoyed of; that we haven't talked since you got here or that I haven't kissed you since you got here?"

Kendall thought for a moment. "Uh…"

Riley's smirked widened as a mischievous gleam came to her eye. "That's what I thought." She reached up and pushed her hair out of h face. "I'm sorry. I've just been really busy today." She waved her phone. "The marketing department is having problems with promotion avenues and Ronan wanted me to—" she paused. "You don't know what I'm talking about do you?"

Kendall lifted his hand and waved it over his face. "Meetings make my eyes glaze over. The last time Gustavo made us sit in at a meeting—"

"—Other than when you went on strike?"

Kendall ignored her. "We had to sit through _four hours_ of businessmen trying to decide whether or not we should change our logo. Coming to the point that they didn't even know what our logo looked like in the first place."

"Ouch."

Kendall dug his finer into the bedspread. "So where's Katie?"

"Where do you think? Lizzie has her and Rhu trapped in the bathroom to get ready for the party. I only got away because I had to finish this call. Chances are she's going to come for me in a few minutes."

"She had a lot of fun at your guys' games and stuff." Kendall smirked. "Half the time I can't get her to sit still through my own games."

"That's because she's gone to them for most of her life, I reckon she would've told you how bored she got."

Kendall rolled his eyes. "You're not funny.

"I'm hysterical, actually." Riley then further elaborated on her answer, "Though I'm sure her boyfriend really helped with this one." She smiled as Kendall rolled his eyes again, doing his best not to grit his teeth at the thought. He liked Patrick but the thought of his baby sister dating still freaked him out. "Your surf competition was pretty cool."

"It wasn't, but thanks for trying to make me feel better." She sighed heavily. "It was probably one of the worst competitions I've done."

"But you won."

"Yeah, but not by much."

"Well, I thought you didn't compete anymore."

"It's a long story."

 _The same thing she said last time,_ Kendall thought. And he _still_ didn't have an answer to it. Which confused him even more knowing how much she loved the sport, probably as much as he loved hockey.

The surfing competition had been really cool. Multiple schools from the area gathered at the beach after the soccer and lacrosse games ended, of which the Jacksons's school won both of them and they had been very exciting games. The surfing competition had been even closer, and while Kendall didn't know much about surfing he knew all of the competitors were very talented, having surfed for years.

But he could see Riley's frustration even from where he sat on the beach with his family and friends. She managed to get good waves to win, but every now and then someone else would beat her to it, and she's slam her fists in the water as it looked less and less like she'd get one. The frustration must've fueled her, though, for she then managed to win.

"Still, you did a great job."

"And I'm sure no one noticed my low scoring waves at all."

"You know, you're being a little too hard on yourself."

Riley made a snorting sound. "Then you clearly don't understand surfing."

"The truth doesn't stop being the truth just because you don't want to talk about it." Kendall hummed, tapping his finger against his chin. "Where did I hear that before? Oh, right." He pointed to her. "I heard it from you."

Riley shook her head. "Couldn't have been me."

"Why's that?"

"I never would've said it if I thought you could use it against me." She thought for a moment then smiled slyly. "Actually, I reckon you're right. I _think_ I remember saying it to you when I said your mom was taking some pole dancing classes at the gy—"

Kendall slapped his hands over his ears. "—La, la, la, la, I can't hear you!"

"The truth doesn't stop being the truth just because you don't want to talk about it, Hockey-Head!" Riley teased. She looked at her phone. "D'you mind talking, _really_ talking later? I've got to work this out."

Kendall tried not to let his disappointment show. "That's fine."

* * *

"Wow, and I thought the party the guys threw was big," Katie said, squeezing her way through the crowd that filled the house. She looked behind her at Lizzie, who was holding onto her wrist, allowing herself to be towed along. Despite Lizzie's height, Katie was definitely the one who was more likely to get physical when needing to shove someone out of the way.

"I thought you and your mom were in San Francisco during that party," Lizzie said.

"We were. But I saw pictures… _and_ the aftermath." Katie rolled her eyes. "It was cool they wanted to have the party but they were _so_ dumb not to get rid of the evidence."

Lizzie giggled. "Didn't your mom ground them for it?"

"For forever and I think she's still mad at them for it." Katie finally managed to make it to an empty pocket of the living room. She looked around at all of the people in the house. There were so many people it may as well have been a concert, they were so crushed together. And yet, she saw her brother and his friends mingling with the Jacksons's friends with ease and felt self-conscious.

Meeting new people was always hard for her. She always came on a _little_ bit too strong, something she certainly had gotten from her mother. But then again, her mother was able to make friends with the cashier at the supermarket. _I think they're going to a book club meeting together, soon, too,_ Katie thought. She continued to look around, trying to find Patrick and Noah. They had disappeared somewhere once the party started and the last thing she wanted to do was tag along with her brother.

"Okay, well, while we're here, let's do a makeup check," Lizzie said, moving in front of Katie. She looked her up and down then leaned forward, almost as if to kiss her. Instinctively, Katie leaned back out of the way. "I can't check your lip gloss if you keep backing away like that."

"I don't need you to be that close to me, Lizz," Katie said.

"Aww." Lizzie pouted. "And I thought we were BFFs."

Katie smirked. "We are, but I like my personal space."

"How are you supposed to kiss if you like your personal space?"

Now Katie let out a sigh that sounded like a huff. "You have such a one track mind, Lizz. Haven't you ever been to a house party before? Aren't we supposed to be mingling and stuff?" She watched Lizzie as she thought for a moment, her eyes narrowing. "Wait, you haven't?"

"Well, I'm not sure if any of them really count," She said slowly. "Some of the ones that Dak had were thrown by people around him or were publicity stunts. And then I was always so busy with dance and school and recitals that I didn't really have much of a social life." She tapped Katie on the shoulder. "Until I met you."

"Welcome to the dark side, Miss. Zevon. My brother sand his idiot friends have been throwing parties for years, though that was usually with mom around and they weren't as big as this." Katie leaned out of the way as the music changed to an upbeat song by Usher and a crowd started an impromptu dance floor in the middle of the living room. "But it is kind of cool."

"Glad you think so!" Patrick's voice suddenly sounded in her ear, making her jump. She turned around and found herself leaning back once more, noticing how close he had to be to be heard. Then she glanced at Lizzie, who had looped her arm around Noah's shoulders and batted her eyelashes at him. "But you should've been here when Corey Delaney had his. It raged on for _hours_."

"Is that the one that was on the news a year years ago?" Lizzie asked.

Noah nodded. "He had a open part and 500 people showed up."

"Did you go?"

"For the first hour or so. It was awesome."

"I'm jealous. It sounded like it'd be cool."

"Well, since then parents have made sure that parties didn't get that big again," Patrick said. "Which sucks for the rest of us, but it'll come good." He nodded towards the party. "Have you met anyone yet?"

Katie shrugged. "It's kind of hard to. There're so many people around."

"Well, come meet our friends, they're in the kitchen." Patrick reached down, hesitating for a second, before grabbing Katie's hand. She smiled to herself, wanting to say, "Its okay, Kendall and James aren't watching." Actually, they had been preoccupied with talking to Riley's and Rhuben's friends as they have arrived.

Guy friends Nic and Tristan Strong, and their girl friend Bliss Montgomery. Katie and Lizzie had both noticed the flash of suspicion that moved through their brothers' eyes when Nic and Tristan were introduced as the twin girls' ex-boyfriends and shared amused smiles. If there was at least one thing Katie could count on that night, it was giving her brother some sort of a pep-talk as she always had to do when he was having girl problems.

James, on the other hand, looked like he was sizing them up to determine whether or not they were better looking than him, as he did with nearly every guy that crossed his path. Katie smiled to herself, remembering how he had been 'out prettied' the time the guys had taken a break and he worked to get some print work with Baracuda products. That had been the first time he realized that his dream of being rich and famous was something everyone in LA was trying to do and he needed to work harder. He had done nothing but work hard since then and she was proud of him for it.

Easily annoyed, but proud.

Patrick led her into the kitchen where even more people were crowded around. But she found Sydney sitting at the table with a girl and boy that looked to be his age, and four teens that looked to be about Katie's age, all holding onto cards. Sydney looked up as the approached and smiled.

"Hi Katie, hi Lizzie," he greeted them. "Do you want to play?"

"Maybe," Katie said. She looked over the cards, noticing a pile of money on the side of the table and felt her competitive spirit immediately start to rise. There was nothing she enjoyed more than gambling a little bit, even if it was something her mother tried to talk her out of time and time again. "What are the stakes?"

"We don't have time for that," Lizzie said impatiently. "With you it's one game and the next thing you know, I'm maxing out my credit card."

"I gave it all back," Katie defended herself. She didn't think to add that her mother had reamed her for it for nearly an hour when she found out. That had been enough to scare her straight for a while. Not completely, but for a while.

"Oh!" Sydney turned to the girl and boy next to him. "This is Ryan and—"

"—your girlfriend," Patrick interrupted with a smarmy smile.

Sydney ignored him. "Anna."

"Hi!"

"Hey, nice to meet you," Lizzie said. She then turned to Noah. "Girlfriend?"

He smiled. "They've known each other since they were four, they're classmates. The rest of us are taking bets of when they actually get together. Anyway," he gestured to the others at the table. "These are our friends, Park, Sol, Jewel, and Storm."

Each of them waved in turn and Katie smiled and said her hellos. She looked around the table, watching as Patrick and Noah took the last seats at the table. Then Katie felt her cheeks flush, lowering her gaze when Lizzie plopped herself down into Noah's lap without any regard. Was she supposed to do the same thing?

"Are you going to sit?" Jewel's question reached Katie's ears, making her look up once more.

Katie forced a smile, hoping to keep her insecurities at bay. "I'm fine standing, thanks," she said. Then she cleared her throat. "So you guys have been friends for a long time?"

"Since forever, I reckon," Park said. "We've been in class since kindie."

"We didn't meet until a few years ago," Storm added. The young African-American girl smiled, showing off her pearly whites. "Though sometimes it's hard to figure out the difference between being a co-worker and a friend."

"Co-worker?" Katie repeated.

"They're our backup band," Patrick explained. "And our backup dancers when we need them."

"Which must be a lot considering how often we're booked to help while you're here, yeah?" Jewel teased. "But you don't need to be embarrassed; everyone needs help from time to time."

"Don't let Rhu hear you say that," Patrick replied. The two smiled at each other and Katie frowned, instantly hating herself for it. It was just as well that things would end up this way. She had only just gotten over her jealousies with Lizzie—after finding out that Lizzie had the same issues of jealousy with her, and now she had to worry about it all over again.

She knew that was always going to be a possible issue with having a boyfriend—if you could even call him that—in the music industry. A lot of pretty girls being around all the time. She had seen the guys as they worked through the issues as well, those with girlfriends at the time, anyway. They had all been excited to realize that for their music videos they could get girls to play the roles of their love interests fairly quickly as well as running through auditions for other girls to perform onstage when needed. Katie had sat in one the casting call at one point and couldn't help but feel disgusted and a little bit inferior.

Boys will be boys and she knew if she were in their shoes she'd have fun auditioning guys, too. But she wasn't someone who really wanted to be in the spotlight in that vein, not wanting to do any more than a few commercials when needed. She was starting to get a taste of how…destructive it could be, consistently comparing herself to other girls who modeled and put themselves in front of the camera on purpose. Sure, there were plenty of people on her social media pages who said otherwise, consistently complementing her and wanting to start conversations.

She was flattered by it all and it was fun, but part of her thought they were making a mistake. Who'd want to talk to her when she had more famous people around her for them to talk with?

"So what have u done while you've been out here so far?" Sol asked, dealing them into the game. He flicked his dark hair out of his eyes and smiled charmingly.

"Sleep mostly," Lizzie remarked.

"I reckon that's no surprise, the time change gets to the best of us. If there's anything you want to do other than the normal sites, there's a lot going on since it's almost Christmas so it'd be hard for you to get bored."

"I'm looking forward to the ARIAs mostly," Lizzie said honestly. "I heard it's like the Grammy's."

"Oh yeah," Storm agreed. "Being nominated is amazing, even if you don't win. All the biggest people attend and it's a big show for presenting and getting noticed. But they have other categories for the work behind albums and stuff and not just the songs. So that makes it stand out."

"Are you going?" Katie asked.

Jewel nodded, her curly hair bouncing around her face. "Almost everyone is invited. There aren't many that don't show up. Plus, the extra publicity is good when walking on the red carpet or even just talking to everyone else who's invited." She forced a pout. "Though we're not helping perform this year."

"You can't get every opportunity to be on camera, Jewel," Anna teased her. Jewel made a show of fluffing her hair in response, making everyone laugh.

Then a hush fell across the table and Katie looked over to see a sandy brown haired teen come into the house through the open kitchen door that led to the backyard, where even more people were gathering. The boy sniffed loudly and smiled at the group. "Hey, how ya going?" he asked.

"Hey Brandon," Noah said quietly. His eyebrows came together. "What are you doing here?"

"Heard there was a party. You know I can't miss that."

"It's not that kind of party, dude," Patrick said flatly.

Katie watched as Brandon's expression fluttered, almost fading completely. Then it came back with as much energy as before. "I don't party like that anymore," he said. Patrick raised an eyebrow at the same time Noah did. Jewel, Storm, Park, and Sol all looked away. "It's not so much fun when you do it alone."

"Um." Sydney put his cards down and backed away from the table. "We're going to go find everyone else." Patrick nodded and he, Anna, and Ryan left the kitchen. Katie took Sydney's empty seat while Brandon continued to stand, looking at his friends.

"So was there something you wanted?" The harshness of Noah's tone grabbed Katie's attention. He never spoke rudely to anyone but there was clearly some tension within this friendship. Katie looked over and caught Lizzie's eye, noticing the concerned expression on her face.

"No. I just wanted to hang out." Brandon leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. "I promise."

"If you're sure." Patrick grabbed all of the cards and shuffled them up.

"I am. Deal me in."

"Okay but none of you should be surprised if you lose to Katie." Patrick tilted his head towards her. "She's the best at this and doesn't reveal her secrets to anyone."

Katie smiled at the praise and looked at him.

He smiled back.

* * *

"So what is it about this place that you didn't want the kids coming out here?" Mrs. Knight asked.

She looked around the streets of Kings Cross. It didn't look to be anything more than downtown LA or even downtown St. Paul from her eyes. There were restaurants—one of which they had just finished eating at—bars, bakeries, supermarkets, and other shops that beckoned towards them. And everyone they passed seemed to be having a good time; they greeted each other with warm smiles, nods, and words of hello, of which Ronan returned with ease.

"It's like you know all of these people," Mrs. Knight surmised.

"Maybe," Ronan said modestly. "But everyone is pretty friendly here as it is. If you think I've been recognized, just wait until the paparazzi come about."

"Is it that bad here?"

"Only if you're pretty big. They can be as invasive as the paparazzi around, say, Justin Bieber back in LA, and if you have children it can be pretty bad. We get it every now and then, more so now because of the ARIAs." Ronan nodded towards the street. "But as for Kings Cross, I don't really want the kids here because it's, technically, a red light district."

Mrs. Knight looked at him incredulously. "You took me on a date to the red light district?" She asked. Then she gave a knowing smile. "Well, now I know it's true what they say when they say men only have one thing on their mind."

"Relax, Kacy that's on the other side of Kings Cross. Where we are is fine." He took a deep breath, shoving his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. "Otherwise, after a certain time of night there's a lot of drunks and meth heads around so you want to steer clear of them. It can get pretty loud and pretty scary if you don't know how to handle them. But, they also prove the age old adage that Aussies really do curse a lot."

"So you'd rather them have a house party," Mrs. Knight said. She internally cringed after saying it, hearing the haughty tone to her voice. And they had been having such a great time, too. Dinner had been amazing, she hadn't had as good food in a while, even going so far as to bite the bullet and have Emu steak with Pavolva for dessert, which was deliciously amazing. Their stroll along the streets of Kings Cross has been great too.

The lights from the shops and restaurants were vivid, casting the street in a warm, inviting glow. People trailed in and out of shops, as excited as they were going in. There was an air of happiness around everyone that made Mrs. Knight forget about all of their worries.

"Well, they're amongst their friends, so I doubt anything too worrying will happen," Ronan said. He lifted an eyebrow. "I'm not so paranoid as I could be, honestly. If anything goes wrong Julius and Brittany are supposed to stop by and if they need me I have my phone."

"I'm just saying that you could be a bit more proactive in what they're able to do. Setting boundaries and all that." She knew she was treading a fine line with the conversation topic. Ronan had been the Jacksons' adoptive father for only so long. She knew he was doing a good job and yet…she couldn't help but look at what she was doing and how her relationship with Kevin turned out and how they still continued their song and dance around each other.

Maybe it was those frustrations she was still letting get to her. Knowing it wasn't going to go away no matter how hard she tried to ignore it.

Ronan came to a stop. He turned to her his eyebrows came together. "Because I let them have a party?" He asked.

"An unsupervised one, yes," Mrs. Knight replied. "It's completely irresponsible. What if something happened?"

"Then I'm sure the police can handle it," Ronan said flatly. He brought a hand up to run through his hair. "Look, I trust my girls to be responsible with this sort of thing and they haven't let me down before."

Now Mrs. Knight's eyebrows lowered, her forehead wrinkling in anger. "And you're saying the boys have?"

"No! Just that I remember you being very upset the last time you came back from a weekend away to the guys throwing a party." He paused, letting out a frustrated sigh. "I don't want to fight about this."

"Neither do I." She quickly realized how unfair she was being. _Let's not ruin the night, there's still plenty to do._ Mrs. Knight paused, allowing herself to calm down, a small smile coming to her face. "Especially because, as my track record goes, I'm the furthest from being the 'perfect mom'." She used air quotes together. "Can't keep my own family together let alone have the right to judge someone else's parenting style."

Ronan gave a gentle smile, too. "From where I stand, with Kendall and Katie, you're holding your family together just fine."

"Thanks, I really needed to hear that."

Ronan held out his hand and Mrs. Knight took it, the two gently strolling along once more. "Anything you want to talk about?"

"Not right now. I just…I don't want to think about anything other than having a good time."

"I understand."

* * *

Kendall let out a frustrated grunt when he heard a soft knock at the closed bedroom door.

The party had ended about two hours ago, surprisingly without much drama, and the cleanup had been fairly easy. And it was a cool party, too. He had met the Jacksons's friends and had a good time talking to them and getting to know them. Camille bounced back and forth from hanging out with James and Logan all night pretty well, though he could see confused glances on some of the partygoer's faces. Carlos had been excitedly talking to fans that had been at the party, explaining how things were in the US while he learned more about Australia and Stephanie sat by his side, equally as excited for him.

Actually, he had hung out with Jo a little bit, finding himself pleasantly surprised that things weren't awkward between the two as they did so. And after scolding Katie when finding her playing a game of cards at one point with a big pile of money in front of her, he played a few rounds too. Overall, it had been fun but…he was still a little annoyed he hadn't had much time to just sit down and talk with Riley. But he didn't dwell, she was busy being a host.

 _Like when you were busy trying to keep your party from getting too out of control,_ Kendall reminded himself, smiling at the failure and eventual success of their party at the Palm Woods.

He hoped it wasn't Carlos at the door like he had the last few nights, as he never slept well when he was in a new place. So far, for the last two nights, he and Logan had to split having Carlos share their bed after James made it perfectly clear he wasn't going to share his bed with anyone. Kendall closed his eyes, hoping the person knocking would go away, seconds before a hand landed on his shoulder.

He cracked open his eyes and spotted Riley standing over him. Before he could ask what was going on, she raised a finger to her lips and motioned for him to follow her. Kendall did as he was told and followed her up through the kitchen, out the backdoor, and across the deck down to the backyard where a hammock lay nestled between two trees.

The two sat down and after making sure their combined weight wouldn't flip them to the ground, Riley leaned forward and gave him a long kiss.

She pulled back, a mischievous smile on her face. "Hi," she said, softly.

Kendall smiled. "Hi."

* * *

 **A/N:** And not everything is peaceful with Ronan and Mrs. Knight. Honestly, I thought this was an interesting part to their dynamic; that their parenting styles are clearly different with Mrs. Knight being a parent for most of her life and Ronan being a friend for most of his. I needed it to be some drama at some point.

And, clearly, things aren't going so well at the party with Logan and Camille not really being able to hang out with the Jacksons's friends taking pictures, and we see some tension with Patrick's and Noah's friend Brandon. What do you think? And what would you like to see more of as the story goes on? (I've already got more of the Jacksons's parents and the trouble Riley and Rhuben got in coming in with the next chapter.)

I hope you all enjoyed it anyway.

 **-Riles**


	8. Chapter 8: That First Inkling

**Chapter Eight: That First Inkling**

* * *

"CANON BALL!"

Carlos screamed at the top of his lungs before leaping into the pool, spreading water as far as wide across the surface of the pool. His friends leaned out of the way of the blast but found themselves unable to keep from getting hit completely. Stephanie reached out when Carlos resurfaced and sent a wave of water into his face, which he shot back.

"Hey, watch the face!" James cried as he floated by, nearly getting hit in the face by Stephanie's backswing. "We've got a video shoot soon and I can't damage my face."

"Right, because the bright red eyes and sunburn are going to help," Carlos replied with a roll of his eyes.

"You can't get sunburned from the moon, Carlos," Logan reminded him. He floated by on an inflatable raft, using his foot to push him off from the other side when he reached the end of the pool. As he did so, he felt his calf muscle start to clench and quickly moved his leg. A low groan of pain escaped his lips.

Flittering his fingers through the water, Logan turned himself around and watched as his friends hung around the Jacksons pool. Kendall, Dak, Patrick, and Noah played a game of water basketball at the far end of the pool, Jo and Camille sat on the edge of the pool, swishing their legs through the water, Riley, Rhuben, and Sydney were taking turns leaping off the diving board. And Katie and Lizzie where nowhere to be found.

Honestly, Logan wasn't sure how any of them were able to have so much energy. How could anyone have any energy after a long day of dance practices—Gustavo made sure it actually took most of the day, they were going to be filming a new music video in the next few days. But after that the attended a concert the Jacksons were putting on.

It was one thing to be the one who was performing, but another to be an audience member. Logan hadn't really ever gone to concerts before, other than the times that Kendall took—re: dragged—them all to Warped Tour. Even then, they only went to the shows of the bands they liked or at least heard of. One of the first concerts of that day ended up creating a mosh pit. Logan stood on the outside of it as much as he could, while Carlos and Kendal gladly flailed around inside it. James stood back as well, doing his best to protect his face until Carlos handed over his helmet and he was in the fray as well.

Still, Logan stood aside. Until he felt a hand grab his arm and the next thing he knew he was being pressed in on all sides, shoved and elbowed hard. By the time the mosh pit had ended, Logan was on solid bruise and was in a bad mood. He never particularly lost his temper, but that day he went off on Kendall. Absolutely went off on how much he hated being in the mosh pit, how no one listened that he didn't want to be there, how it was a terrible experience.

And true to form, Kendall apologized and said he'd never have to do it again. He kept that promise. The rest of the shows that day that promise easy. Afterwards, however, if it was an idea that they would be going to another concert it was only where in an arena big enough for them to sit down. Logan felt pretty bad about it, it was just a combination of the hot day, not may places to sit down, expensive food and drinks, and the mosh pit all added him up to blowing up.

That had been his worst experience with being in the audience of concerts.

This time, however, it was like that plus 100 in terms of energy. Logan, Kendall, Carlos, and James had to go straight from finishing up their runs over choreography to the arena the Jacksons' concert was being held in. And it was one of the biggest ones he'd ever seen, not including when they had sung the national anthem at a football game. Maybe it was because he was on the other side of it all. When he was on stage, there wasn't a lot to see. The lights on stage and flashing from the back of the arena made it difficult for him to see more than the first few rows in front and around them. Otherwise he could see the bright lights of the cellphones being waved back and forth.

And he could _feel_ the power and energy that the audience gave them. Could take that energy and use it to give back to them to put on a good show. But being part of the audience was different; he could feel that excitement, everything else was feeling, wanting to know what it truly was like to go to a DarkElements concert. They were in their hometown where they were more well-known than in the US, with a massive repertoire of songs to perform and go all out compared to the only albums they had put out in America.

Even when they were hanging out with them backstage there was a different electricity in the air compared to when they were waiting around to record their morning show performance. This time everyone that went into making a band look good was around; the stage crew, the stage hands to make sure mics and mic packs were working, representatives from Blazing Phoenix Australia and America, guitar techs, drum techs, piano techs, security, family, and friends that milled in and out of the room on the way to their seats and their jobs.

Logan held onto Camille's hand as they stepped aside from a large security guard, who moved his way from the room. To sweep the halls or take down an imaginary force if Logan had to guess. And he thought Freight Train was intimidating. This guy wasn't big in his stature, but from his rippling muscles it was obvious he was going to stop whatever issues came aboard if they ever did.

"And I thought Griffin had a big entourage when he went places," Logan said quietly. He actually spoke at normal volume, but compared to everyone else in the room it was as if he was whispering. Even Gustavo had to raise his voice to be heard, speaking to Kelly, and Ronan.

"I know, this is so crazy," Camille agreed. She squeezed his hand tightly. "But so exciting, you know?"

"Yeah." Logan wasn't sure if she was talking about the fact that they could finally be out in the open again or about the show. Either way he agreed. As if to prove it to himself, Logan leaned over and gave her a sweet kiss, making a smile blossom across her face. "I guess this is what it feels like to be at a Big Time Rush concert."

"I don't know, I've been to _so_ many of them already," Camille teased. She laughed at the roll of Logan's eyes and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Now, now, you two, you don't want to get kicked out again do you?" James teased as he walked over to the two. He leaned over, making eyes at a girl who wore a t-shirt with the words stage-hand across the front. "Hi, I'm James."

She smiled and walked away.

"Shouldn't we be saying that to you?" Camille shot back. "I mean, if we're going to convince my dad that we're dating."

"That wasn't _my_ idea remember," James said, his smile immediately fading. "I was the one who said it was a bad idea. If everything comes crashing down, I'm blaming it all on you." He lifted a finger. " _And_ if our fans turn their backs on me, I'm holding it to you to set them straight. They'll probably fall for that romantic 'I couldn't see him' crap anyway."

"Just because you don't have a girlfriend," Logan started. Which was a strange concept in itself, honestly. Back in Minnesota, James had a date nearly every Friday night. Saturday if he were hanging out with the guys on Friday. But since arriving in LA he didn't seem to be interested in any one girl. Nor did they seem _too_ interested in him. Maybe that was the point of LA, the guys who were the leading man were a dime a dozen.

It was then Logan felt even more grateful for having Camille at his side. He hadn't had a girlfriend before her, being too shy to really ask anyone out or let them know how he felt. And he was a bit too much of a nerd for other girls to really take seriously. He was always called sweet, and cute, and adorable. But that never got him many dates.

"Alright, everyone who'll be in the audience, you need to get to your seats," Ronan called a few minutes later, voice booming over the conversation going on around them. He pointed towards the speakers that sat in the corners of the room that played an endless loop of pop, rock, hip-hop, 80s, 90s, and 2000s songs that was also being fed out towards the audience. "The playlist just finished playing _St. Elmo's Fire,_ which is a signal for us. So let's go. Big Time Rush, you can stay here, everyone else can go to their seats."

Logan gave Camille another kiss and watched as she, Jo, Stephanie, Mrs. Knight, Kelly, Gustavo, Katie, Dak, and Lizzie were led out by the security team. The only ones left in the room were Ronan, some security, the Jacksons, Big Time Rush, and the Jacksons' backup band the boys had officially met earlier that day after meeting most of the at the Jacksons party.

Sydney sat cross-legged in a make-up chair, stretching his arms, while Riley, Rhuben, Patrick and Noah did stretches out on the floor. "What'S with that look on your face, Ronan?" He asked, noticing Ronan chewing his lower lip.

"We've got to change up the set list," Ronan explained. "Last minute change, I talked with some of the guys and they said it's better to hold off performing _No Reason_ again until we get a concrete idea of what we're going to perform for the ARIAs."

Rhuben's eyebrows came together. She sat in a split, her legs out the side, leaning forward so that her chest nearly touched the ground. "Is that the same for all of the songs from Black and White?"

"Just the one we're figuring out for the performance."

"Okay, last minute change," Riley commented. She closed her eyes, clapping her hands together. "Ideas. We need ideas."

"What about opening with _Way Away_?" Patrick suggested, pulling his knee towards his chest.

"If we do that then we'd have to change the entire set list," Sydney reminded him. "Since we have everything flowing around that song."

"Because it's your single?" Kendall asked.

"It's our first single," Noah corrected. "It's the song that you have to be careful putting in a set list because fans are coming to hear it specifically, yeah? Put it too late and people may leave early. Put it too early and it may be the same."

"What about _One Year, Six Months?"_ Jewel suggested.

"As an _opener?"_ Riley shot back.

"Maybe Rooftops," Ronan said. "It starts out slow like Jewel suggested but then goes back to being a real fast paced tone after that."

"We just cut that out of the set list within the last few months," Rooster, Rhuben's backup dancer and the band's backup guitarist pointed out. "I reckon, now, it's been around for about five years. We switched it out to bring in something new."

"Right, right," Ronan said. He made a quick note on his phone.

" _Make a Sound,"_ Patrick said.

Brody, Riley's backup dancer and the band's backup pianist added, "Or another one of the unofficial singles."

"And there's an audience participation part that could get them going at the beginning, yeah?" Riley pointed at him. "I like it." She then looked at Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney. "What about you lot?"

"It's only got four chords, so you don't have to worry about changing the tuning to go directly into the next one," Sydney pointed out. He then golf-clapped and smirked at his older brother. "Congratulations, Pat, you actually did something right for once."

Patrick shot him the finger in reply.

"Okay, we've got the change. I'll make note of it for everyone else," Ronan said. He looked at his watch. "You got five minutes."

"Hearts and hands, Pat," Rhuben said.

Patrick nodded and got up from the floor. He brushed off the seat of his pants and motioned for Big Time Rush to join them. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James worked their way into the circle that the Jacksons, Brody, Rooster, Jewel, Storm, and Anna created, taking the hand of the person standing next to them. Rhuben gave Logan an encouraging smile, squeezing his hand as she took hers.

"This is one of our first performances while on our break, we need to make sure it's as bloody good as when we're on a tour. Don't come off stage thinking that you could've done more. These are people who've waited for over a year to see us and we wanted to make them have a great time. If you mess up, keeping going. We're a family, all of us here, and we've always got each other's backs. Have a fucking blast, you guys." Patrick licked his lips and bowed his head. "A moment of silence for those who are religious."

That confused Logan for a moment, who looked around at those who lowered their heads and closed their eyes, lips silently moving to whatever prayer they were speaking, Carlos among them. He hadn't considered the Jacksons to be religious by any means, but it was a nice sentiment they'd do it for everyone else.

"Make sure you leave it all on stage." He dropped his hands from those standing beside him, prompting everyone else to do the same. His in-ears hung around his neck and he quickly checked them before replacing them. "Alright, so I've gone one last question for all of you." He took a deep breath and shouted. "Who's going to bring the blood and pain?"

"We're going to bring the blood and pain!" Riley, Rhuben, Noah, and Sydney shouted back dutifully.

"Who's going to bring the blood and pain?"

"We're going to bring the blood and pain!"

Then the five came together and put their arms around each other in a huddle before rocking back and forth, making grunting sounds as if they were about to play in a sporting event rather than do a concert before screaming at the top of their lungs, jumping up and down. They then went over to Ronan, who gave each of them a high-five on their way out of the room to head towards the stage.

Big Time Rush followed them out but went in the opposite direction to go the audience by the rest of the security team. They quickly found their friends and sat down with them, moments later hearing the sound of the pre-planned music slow to a stop. Then the audience around him erupted with cheers, some he could see were already starting to cry. The stage darkened to pitch black, not even the glow sticks that had been handed out could break through it.

Then a guitar started, the sound of the audience's screams rose even further. At the back of the otherwise blackened stage the screen illuminated with red swirls, following along with the guitar riffs that were being played. Then he heard Riley's and Patrick's voices start off the song.

 _I don't know if we'll make it home.  
All we can do for now is hope._

One thing he knew for sure was that when the Jacksons said that Big Time Rush needed more energy during their shows, they meant it. With every song moving from songs that used their instruments, to songs that they did their choreography to, back to instruments they didn't miss a beat and didn't look tired throughout their two-hour set. If it wasn't for small breaks to talk to the audience; take questions and even song requests, giving them a chance to drink some water, dry off with towels, and do quick changes.

It was an _amazing_ show. Logan found himself jumping and singing along with the rest of the audience as they went on.

And now Logan was paying for it. When they arrived back at the house after the concert Logan had wanted to go straight to sleep, but the Jacksons, completely wired after the show, opted to go swimming instead. It was now three in the morning and Logan wanted nothing more than to sleep and rest his tired limbs. It was hard enough to even get the raft to himself, having to wrestle it away from Carlos first and that was a battle in itself.

"Look out!"

Something smacked against the side of Logan's head and he fell over into the water. When he resurfaced, Logan sputtered, shaking water out of his face. With a glare, he picked up the inflatable ball that was being used as the basketball and glared. "Who threw that?" He demanded.

Kendall immediately pointed over to Patrick, who pointed back at him. Then Patrick stood back, holding up his hands. "I'm good at a lot of things, I'm not so good at basketball. Are you going to believe me or the bloke with good hand-eye coordination from hockey?"

Logan locked his glare onto Kendall who gave a sheepish smile. "I know, I know, you need to make new friends."

"Right." Logan punched the ball back towards them.

Then he let out a sigh and floated on his back in the water, seconds before he was splashed again. He looked up when Riley appeared at his side, gently kicking her legs as she floated by. "You're lucky I didn't land on you, mate," she said and kept going.

Tilting his head, Logan noticed he had moved closer to the diving board.

"I give that one a nine," Jo said, holding up nine fingers on her hands. "The flip was great, but it was even more impressive that you managed to avoid Logan before hitting the water."

Riley did a queenly hand wave as Camille, Carlos, and Stephanie clapped their appreciation. "Thank you, thank you."

"Careful, you don't want her head to get even bigger than it already is," Rhuben commented, standing at the back end of the diving board.

"If that happened, she'd drown," Sydney commented with an impish smile.

"Ha, ha." Riley rolled her eyes. Her head suddenly whipped to the side, eyes narrowing. Logan tried to follow her gaze but didn't see anything over the bushes. "Hey," she finally said, her voice taking on a strange tone. "Rhu, c'mere."

Rhuben lifted an eyebrow then looked in the direction Riley had just been looking. Her face cleared and she nodded, stepping down form the diving board.

"Is everything okay?" Kendall asked. Riley swam to the edge of the pool and pulled herself out in a one smooth move.

"Everything's fine," She replied. She grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her arms. "Just someone we have to talk to."

Kendall frowned. "Does it have to do with—"

"—Yes," She interrupted.

"Do you need help?" Patrick asked, treading water by the basketball hoop.

"No, you guys keep swimming." The girls left the pool area, disappearing into the darkness. The basketball game immediately resumed, this time with James and Carlos joining in on the game while the girls cheered along with them.

"Come on, Logan, you have to play," Carlos called to him.

"Maybe in a minute, I'm going to go to the bathroom first," Logan said.

"Dude, just go in the water."

"I _really_ hope you're joking," Dak remarked. He looked down at the water around him, as if he was able to see the color change before him.

"Relax, we clean the pool every day," Noah said. He tilted his head towards his twin brother. "You know, just in case Patrick has one of his accidents." Patrick punched him hard on the shoulder before leaping atop him to push his head under water.

"It doesn't clean itself?" Dak asked.

Kendall's eyes widened and he looked over at the teen icon who had helped them at the beginning of their band. "Are you serious?"

Logan shook his head, pulling himself out of the pool. He wasn't one to comment on other people's relationships and he knew If he _did_ say something it would sound to everyone else like he was jealous—trying to make Dak look bad in front of Rhuben. But he sometimes didn't get how Dak and Lizzie could've gone so long without basic knowledge on things, despite knowing their upbringing was so extravagant they had people to do everything for them.

He pulled himself out of the pool and headed inside, goosebumps forming on his skin as soon as the air conditioning hit him. He shivered, rubbing his hands up and down his arms, cursing himself for not bringing in a towel. But it would only take a few minutes to go in and out of the bathroom and he'd clean up the wet footprints afterwards.

Logan walked through the kitchen and the living room towards the hallway that lead towards Ronan's office, the bathroom, dining room, and sitting room. He knew where the bathroom was and headed there but couldn't help but stop by the room whose door was always closed. When the Jacksons had given them the tour of the house they explicitly stated that that room, along with Ronan's office, was off-limits.

Yet the door was partially open this time and from where Logan was standing he could see stacks of boxes around the room. Logan looked over his shoulder before moving closer to the crack in the door. The boxes weren't just boxes, but evidence boxes. He'd seen Carlos's father bring some to the home when he was working overtime. And there _had_ been that time they mistook a box of evidence for fakes to mess around with. Boy did they get an earful from that one. Logan could still picture the way Papi Garcia looked when he saw what they had done.

But his inquisitive nature continued to get the best of him, even at the worst times. Pheobe Nachee was a good example of that. _But this isn't Phoebe Nachee's seminar,_ Logan reminded himself. He quietly pushed open the door. _It's just snooping through some of your friends' stuff._ Logan swallowed hard but continued inside.

The room was covered in boxes and bags, holding a musty smell. It was obvious no one went into the room very room. It looked like nothing had been moved, a light layer of dust sat over everything. Judging by it, he would say it had been a few months. Reaching the table beside him, Logan glanced over the stack of boxes that were carefully set together.

Logan's eyebrows knitted together as he looked through the box nearest him, flipping open the top with a quick flip of his wrist. It was filled to the brim with newspaper clippings. A _lot_ of newspaper clippings held together with staples and paper clips. Fanning one out, he quickly read over them.

 _Local scientist makes breakthrough._

 _Local scientist wins prestigious award._

 _Jacksons Jet off to Japan._

 _Rocket scientist heads panel on Education Policy._

 _Local teacher wins national award for education._

It took Logan a few minutes to realize he was looking at national and international newspaper clippings. And a few seconds after that to realize they were newspaper clippings of the Jacksons' parents ranging from their work in their careers as well as their work in the community. Beneath other stacks of clippings Logan found medals and plaques.

"Why would they be in evidence boxes?" He muttered to himself.

"What are you doing?"

Hearing Noah's voice behind him, Logan jumped. For two reasons; one being guilty for snooping through something that clearly wasn't his, the other being that Noah had the talent of sneaking up behind people without knowing he was there. It wasn't just that he spoke quietly, but he moved quietly as well.

Whirling around, Logan smacked the box to the floor and winced as everything fell out. "Shoot. I'm sorry," he apologized. Noah continued to watch Logan as he knelt to grab the upturned box. He frantically shoved everything back inside, all the while knowing he was making it worse. "I was just…looking for the bathroom." It was a lame excuse he knew.

But maybe Noah'd buy it. Staying in the room in the basement, that was where he typically went to use the bathroom and shower. He hadn't been upstairs as much, only for food, to meet up in the morning and figure out what they were doing that day, and to go to the pool.

"Mate, two rooms down," Noah said, pointing his thumb over his finger. "No one other than family is allowed in here."

"I'm sorry, I—"

"—Was looking for the bathroom, yeah?" Even though his voice was quiet, Noah's tone held a lot of contempt. Logan righted the box back onto the table and quickly walked out of the room. Noah made sure everything was back in place with a quick sweep of his eyes, before pulling the door shut behind him.

Logan watched him as he walked down the hall, as quiet as he had come. His mind swirled with two questions, trying to figure out the answer to each.

What was it that had frightened Riley and Rhuben so much? And what was it that they weren't supposed to see in that room?

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, finally got back to update this. I got some inspiration recently, not to mention some more BTR fics that I'll eventually put up. I'm writing them so they'll mostly be done before they're actually put up. (For once in my life). Hope you guys liked it.

 **-Riles**


End file.
